Almost everything the VA offers online runs through two front doors: the VA.gov website and the VA: Health and Benefits mobile app. If you have ever felt lost trying to find your claim status or your records, this guide is the plain-language tour: how to sign in, what lives where, and what the app actually does. It is built from the VA's own pages, so it describes only features the VA currently publishes.
Signing in
To use the personalized parts of VA.gov, you need an account. In the VA's words: "To sign in to VA.gov, you need an ID.me or Login.gov account," and "If you don't have one of these accounts, you can create one now." ID.me and Login.gov are the two accepted sign-in accounts.
One support limit is worth knowing up front. The VA: "Note: Our VA contact center representatives can't reset your ID.me or Login.gov password for you. This includes representatives at our My HealtheVet help desk." Password help for those accounts comes from ID.me or Login.gov themselves, not the VA call center.
What lives where
| You want to | Where it lives |
|---|---|
| Sign in | An ID.me or Login.gov account on VA.gov or the app |
| Read your medical records | The My HealtheVet experience on VA.gov |
| Check your claim or appeal status | VA.gov or the VA app |
| Refill prescriptions and message your care team | The VA app |
| Update direct deposit | The VA app |
Your medical records online
VA.gov is where you read your VA medical records. The VA: "Find, review, print, and download your VA medical records in the new My HealtheVet experience on VA.gov." What you can pull, in the VA's words: "You can find, review, print, and download each part of your VA medical records online, including your lab and test results, vaccine and allergy records, and care summaries and notes."
There are eligibility conditions. For veterans: "You're enrolled in VA health care, and / You're registered as a patient in a VA health facility." For family members: "You're enrolled in the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), and / You're enrolled in the Meds by Mail program."
And a privacy reminder from the VA: "We follow strict security policies and practices to protect your personal health information. If you print or download anything from our online tools, you'll need to take responsibility for protecting that information." Anything you download lands on your device, so store it carefully.
The VA: Health and Benefits app
The mobile app puts much of VA.gov in your pocket. The VA: "With the official VA: Health & Benefits app, you can manage your VA health care, benefits, and payments from your mobile phone or tablet." It uses the same sign-in: "VA: Health and Benefits accesses your VA Electronic Health Record and, for your security, requires you to enter ID.me or Login.gov account credentials," and it supports "Biometric sign-in" using "fingerprint and face recognition."
What the app does, grouped as the VA lists it:
- Health care tools: "Refill and track your VA prescriptions / Send and receive secure messages from your VA health care team / Review appointments and add them to your calendar / Get your records for VA vaccines, such as COVID-19."
- Benefits tools: "Check your disability rating / Review your claim or appeal status / Submit evidence for your claim or appeal / Download common VA letters."
- Payments tools: "Review payments we've sent you / Update your direct deposit information."
- Plus a "Facility locator," quick access to the "Veterans Crisis Line," and "Proof of Veteran status."
If you need help with the app, the VA lists a support line on its page: "Call: 800-698-2411 (TTY: 711)," available "24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
Checking your claim status
One of the most-used features is claim status. Both VA.gov and the app let you "Review your claim or appeal status." Our claim status timeline guide explains what each step means. To pull the documents behind a claim, our C-file and service records guide shows how, and if you are starting fresh, the how-to-file guide walks the first steps.
A note on names
Names on your screen may differ from older guides you find elsewhere. This guide uses the current names on the VA's pages: the sign-in accounts are ID.me and Login.gov, and medical records live in "the new My HealtheVet experience on VA.gov." If a third-party article uses an older brand name for a feature, check it against the VA's own page before relying on it.
What this does not mean
Having a sign-in account is not the same as being enrolled in VA health care. Reading your records online requires enrollment and registration at a facility, and the account alone does not create eligibility for any benefit. The app showing your disability rating or claim status is a window into VA systems, not a place where decisions are made. And downloading records or letters puts sensitive information on your own device, which the VA reminds you to protect yourself.
Hypothetical example. A veteran we will call Lena creates a Login.gov account, signs in to the VA app with her fingerprint, and checks her disability rating and claim status in the Benefits tools. She refills a prescription and messages her care team in the Health care tools, then downloads a benefit letter she needs for a lender. When she forgets her Login.gov password, she resets it with Login.gov, not the VA call center, because the VA notes its representatives cannot reset it. This shows how the pieces connect. It is an illustration, not a promise about any account, since your access depends on your own enrollment and registration.
Where to go next
Once you are signed in, the most common next stop is claim status: see our claim status timeline guide and compare tools with our claim tracker. To gather the records behind a decision, see the C-file guide, and to start a claim, the how-to-file guide. Look up any term in the glossary, and browse programs on the VA benefits page. VeteranHQ helps you organize what you find in these tools. We are not the VA, and signing in to our site is separate from signing in to VA.gov.