Va Medical Centers

[JON]

I am a "snowbird" between Las Vegas VAMC and Spokane Wa VAMC I have been going back and forth almost 5 years with no problems. I had a primary care doc at Spokane and Las Vegas.. I was informed around March 1 that this is now called "dual enrolled" and you can't do this unless you need critical care and all PC's agree to it. I get weekly infusions for anemia and blood loss. At this time, I'm in Las Vegas and get prescription and supply refills from Spokane, Portland and Las Vegas. Spokane VAMC "discontinued" all my meds and supplies from Spokane under this program. They also "discontinued" all my specialist prescriptions from Spokane.

I can't seem to get anyone in the VA admin to address my problem as I should qualify for "dual enrollment" because of the critical weekly infusions. However I also get told I can't have more than one primary care doc at all the VAs. As usual, I've only had one person interested in helping. Las Vegas VAMC patient advocate, enrollment and primary care director have all blown me off. (less than 5 minutes at the patient advocate). Spokane is also blowing me off. I even got accused by one of their admin types of "getting away" with having primary care docs at other hospitals. However you can't get specialized care at other hospitals without a primary care referral, thus the numerous PCs.

Just letting you folks know that if you're a snow bird and depend on VA treatment be prepared for another runaround.