What Is Your Number One Complaint About The Va?

[Slowlane]

If you had a chance to "air" your number one complaint about the VA what would it be?

1. Medical care?

2. Claim backlog wait time?

3. Total communication breakdown (no way to make your point)?

4. C&P lies?

5. Hamster wheel tactics and deny deny until they die? (my favorite)

CNN has opened the nations eyes over the medical scheduling crimes. Jeff Miller has said that "this is just the tip of the iceberg". CNN has a "Contact Us" link on their website.

This might be our big chance of get some national attention on some of the above items if this (Hadit) website could unite together and go forth in numbers.

However, sadly, this thread will die in less than three days. No messages will go forward to CNN. An opportunity to get some attention before the latest scandal blows over will be lost.

Slowlane

[mags1023]

The C&P examination process is a joke. I have had at least 12 C&P exams and they all but 1 have come back as "most likely not caused by service". Even on conditions that are documented in black and white in my SMR. I have to drive 2 1/2 hours (5 hr RT) to Pensacola for each of these and the VA pays me $103 every time I do just for their examiner to put a check in the "most likely not caused by service" block. Most of the time, the examiner does not even include the answers you gave them in reply to their questions!

[john999]

Access to and quality of health care is my gripe since I am already P&T. If I want a flu shot at VA expense I must drive 20 miles spend a lot of time in traffic when I can go to Walgreen's and get the shot and medicare pays. I say do away with the VA health care system and Medicare for all. Why have two systems of medical care when the private sector could absorb all of us vets if a medicare-like system was installed for us. Only the sickest or homeless would use VA hospital.

There are so many things wrong with the VA I can not really point to one thing. The VBA is corrupt and the VAMC system is a failure. The G.I. Bill is not enough. Maybe G.I. mortgage system is OK but it takes a long time and many won't accept it.

John

[robvaner]

I can honestly say that I don't have any complaints about the health care that I recieve at the Tampa VA hospital. Everyone has been very caring and professional when it comes to my mental or physical well being.

On the C&P side, I have always gotten a fair rating and I was fortunate to get TDIU the first time around.

I always go out of my way to thank the VA providers every time they see me. I am moving to Atlanta next year and I am hearing negative things about the hospital there. I will try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

[broncovet]

In addition to the delays, shredding our documents, my biggest complaint is the VA LIES TO US:

No, I did not make it up. Shinseki said that Vets get an appointment in 24 days, the VAOIG says 115 days:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/05/28/phoenix-vets-waited-115-days-for-first-doctor-appointment-inspector-says/

VA officials need to be made held accountable for their words, and fired when a lie is discovered like this. This is not the only lie, its just one of many glaring obvious lies.

[Chuck75]

If I had to come up with a single VA VA Complaint, It would be that the VA's bureaucratic driven goals, processes, and way of doing things

is just that! As a result, the VA considers administrative issues and ways of doing things far more important than actually delivering services to veterans.

The sole reason for the VA existence is to provide services to veterans. When it cannot or does not provide them in the needed time frames and so forth,

it has failed in it's assigned tasks, and is in violation of law.

Part of the problem is that the VA has it's own idea of what it should be doing, rather than using the actual needs of veterans as the over riding guide.

On the medical side, the VA, for decades, has concentrated on providing "routine" medical care, with acute medical care something that was given short shrift,

at least outside of in hospital care. The end result is that the VA's "primary care" is actually more of a system to deal with data gathering, prescriptions, and so forth.

One major improvement might be to reduce the requirement for VA PCPs to issue duplicate prescriptions for VA supplied drugs, etc., when well and better qualified private physicians have already issued a prescription that is valid anywhere else but the VA's pharmacy.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Chuck75

[Berta]

After last night's special H VAC hearing on C span, (probably available at the H VAC web site by now) and after the release of the IG interim report the committee discussed with 3 VA witnesses who had to be subpeonaed (I posted link to the IG report here yesterday)

there have been calls for the FBI to step in.

JRT said:

"This shows they made a decision received the paperwork and ignored it and processed what they wanted to process. They failed to do their job and provide me a fair evaluation. Instead I will be forced to appeal."

Try to get them to CUE themselves under violation of 38 CFR 4.1 et al. Template at our CUE forum.

And tell your story to any entity in the post I made from Charles Kelley, to include Cong Miller, Chair H VAC and your state congressman and Senators.