Vicki's Post-dav Rep-lawyers Etc

[Berta]

You are a few clicks away- VA has made this easy for you to do-

http://www.va.gov/oca/c2c_USA.htm

Tell your Congressperson how you feel about the right to hire an attorney to handle your VA claim.

[Dorothy Kansas]

"No matter how much education she might have she is still a nurse not a physician."

I take it, by your above statement, that you think less of nurses than you do physicans?

You must, then, ascribe to the view that all doctors, simply because they are doctors, hung the moon.

Well, I didn't.

Larry--I don't carry the credentials as your wife but I am a Retired LPN Army Trained. As I said before I have worked with some of the best to include former Heart Surgeon Bill Frist.

[Stretch]

Nobody, is denigrating anybodies profession here.

[vaf]

Exactly. A non-issue diverts the discussion from the original point of the posting - - Veterans Choice of Representation Act. Coming soon to a Congressman near you.

There's an election this year in Louisiana's 4th District (McCrery). I would ask that everyone who lives in Louisiana, particularly this District, please contact his office at http://mccrery.house.gov/Contact.asp as soon as possible to request his support of this legislation. I ask everyone else to please do the same with their respective Congressional representatives.

Edited August 27, 2006 by Vicki

[mssoup1]

Only my opinion.

I have been to many doctors and a few physicians assistants. I can tell you that without a doubt, the physician assistant spent a great deal more time with me than most of the doctors I have. She was very intererested in what my problems were and did a lot of explaining details to me. In fact, she was so good at what she did, she didn't last long at the clinic where I was being treated. I understand she was moved due to the fact that she spent too much time with patients. Believe me, I was very leary of seeing a PA until I had my first visit with her. Now, I think, I would just as soon have a PA as my PCP.

My husband had a PA at the VA as his PCP. He thought she was great. Spent a lot of time with him and seemed to really care about him. Well, she was able to transfer to another department she had been wanting to work in, so he lost her. He got another PA and it was like day and night between the two. So, I guess you never know.

I guess what I am really trying to say is that whether the person is a doctor, NP or PA, it all depends on who is treating you and, most of all, their time schedules. It seems it is so hard to find any treating doctor, NP or PA anymore who has much time to spend with the patient. It is like we are being herded in and out like a bunch of cattle. I guess the way they book so many patients on one day has a lot to do with the amount of money they are getting reimbursed from the insurance companies/medicare as well. The less money the insurance companies reimburse them, the more patients they have to book and see in order to make up the difference. Then, we seem to get the short end of the stick. Of course, this is only my take on how it seems.

mssoup1

[vaf]

If you sue the DAV for malpractice or negligence because one of its service officers caused you financial losses over a mishandled claim, do you think the DAV will use one of their "attorneys-in-fact" to defend themselves?

No, the DAV will retain the best by-God "real" attorney they can afford, yet they deny you the same opportunity when you're in the fight of your life for your VA benefits.

Similarly, I would not want a "physician-in-fact" to diagnose me with a terminal illness, or push me to have surgery or something equally serious before I consulted a Board-certified physician specialist. How can a veteran be adequately rated unless the full extent of his condition is appreciated and fully described by someone specializing in the field? There's no guaranty of an adequate C & P exam even in that case, but I believe the odds are in the veteran's favor when, for instance, you don't have nurse practitioners performing C & P exams for cardiology evaluations, as someone I know had happen at a VAMC in Florida.

If an M.D. or a lesser-credentialed healthcare staffer performs a C & P exam, the outcome will probably lead you to have strong feelings on one side of the argument or the other. However, if a C & P exam is flawed for some reason (one of them being the credentials of the examiner), I believe we should be able to hire an attorney to argue that point in defense of the veteran, instead of being forced to use an "attorney-in-fact."

Which was the whole point to begin with.

[Stretch]

Naw, I expect for them to give it their best shot.