Va Choice Card = More Va Lies

[Vync]

I tried to use the VA Choice Card and found out that the only people making a choice is the VA. The card is aptly named.

My VAMC is lying to patients and scheduling them as walk-in's instead of bonafide appointments.

After being hospitalized out of state, I was discharged and instructed to see my primary care doctor within 7 days. I called my VAMC primary care clinic last week. They said the earliest appointment was three weeks out, but when informed about "the date medically determined by my physician" being within 7 days, they could suddenly see me one day next week. I received the robo call appointment reminder the night before my appointment. After arriving early for my appointment and checking in at both the kiosk and the clinic desk, I ended up waiting about five hours before being seen (despite being in priority group 1, 100% P&T). I checked periodically and was told I would be seen "soon".

I asked the doc what took so long and was told I was classified as a walk-in and did not have an appointment.

Has this happened to anyone else?

VA Choice Card

http://www.va.gov/opa/choiceact/index.asp

You have been told by your local VA medical facility that you will need to wait more than 30 days from your preferred date or the date medically determined by your physician

Actual wording of the law

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-113publ146/pdf/PLAW-113publ146.pdf

Sec101 (B)(2) the veteran—

(A) attempts, or has attempted, to schedule an appointment

for the receipt of hospital care or medical services

under chapter 17 of title 38, United States Code, but is

unable to schedule an appointment within the wait-time

goals of the Veterans Health Administration for the furnishing

of such care or services;

[Chuck75]

I received my Veterans Choice Card back in November because the clinic I tried to get scheduled in was over the limit for new patients.

Back around the first of the year I tried to use it. Here's how it went. When you call it is not the VA you are talking to - it's some inept insurance company.

I requested to see a doctor as soon as possible. Nothing too dramatic, just that my blood pressure was way out of whack and I had a bad sinus infection. So I called the first week of January to try and get an appointment with a regular doctor. Veteran's Choice Card (VCC) said they would call me back within 3 days.

By the 4th day I called again. This time I was told it could take up to 2 weeks. I waited another 2 weeks and never received a call back. So I called once again. First they told me that I never called, then I got transferred to someplace else a few times, and finally I got to someone who acknowledged that I did call a few weeks ago. They said they would figure out what was going on and get me an appoint.

It is now February. I call again. Same runaround. By the 23rd of February I finally called a local doctor and went it. I'll just pay for it myself. The doctor I paid for out of my pocket ran some blood tests and found a few other things wrong.

At the end of the month VCC finally lets me know they have me scheduled. I keep the appointment and see what I would call probably one of the worst doctors I have seen in my 55 years on this planet. Totally ignored anything that I said, came up with the weirdest conclusions after seeing me for about 3 minutes. By that time my right arm and chest was in pain and she said it was bursitis or a gluten allergy. Sigh. She hands me a business card and refers me to an Orthopedist.

Prescriptions? No - she said I had to pay for them myself. She does not forward prescriptions to the VA.

The referral? I went there and have spine damage which is cutting off nerves. The 3rd world doctor that VCC sent me to didn't go any of the paperwork right and now the VCC refuses to reimburse me for the close to $1000 in doctor fees that I have racked up so far just in the referral the VCC doctor sent me to. Apparently VCC doesn't allow referrals unless it is run through their system and you are willing to wait another 3-6 months.

My sinus thing turned out to be acute sinusitis and I had to go to a different doctor and, once again, pay for it myself, to get it taken care of. They put me on steroids and antibiotics as it had spread into my lungs as well. The VCC doctor said it was just allergies, which was 100% wrong. Her diagnosis? Go to Walmart and buy some Claritin. I did - it didn't do squat. I tried telling her it was not allergies and that I had been tested for everything possible in the past at some of top centers in the US, including the Mayo Clinic. Nope, she said. I think she tells every patient they are allergic to gluten. Maybe she gets kickbacks from the local funeral home.

Veteran's Choice Card sucks. You folks are not missing out on anything by not having it. The VA clinics here in the area of Atlanta are great, they are just too backlogged to handle the load. I got stuck paying for the referrals and ended up also just going to another doctor to get what I had taken care of.

There are so many thing that "went wrong" with this that I don't know where to begin. The doctors referred to by the VA are supposed to get paperwork, from the VA, etc. describing the service needed. There is an approval process. You should not have to pay the doctor, and much of the VA paperwork mentions this. The VA refusing to pay is another issue, likely based upon them not doing the proper paperwork in the first place.

Just to add insult, too many of those involved in the choice program don't know what they are doing. At the present time, it looks like using the VA's "Fee Paid" program is the only really working method to get the VA to pay for outside care.

My recent experience with fee paid is based upon an existing patient/doctor relationship, and the willingness of the doctor to accept VA payment. It is much more involved than dealing with private insurance and/or Medicare.

Using "Fee Paid" saved me about $2k in out of pocket and co-pay.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Chuck75