VAMC problems

[DebbieSue212]

I'm 100% disabled due to agoraphobia/panic disorder. I was totally housebound years ago, but made it back out with a lot of work, though I couldn't drive far. I've had to travel to a different state to go to a VAMC, accomplishing it by downing a bunch of prescription Xanax, headphones on Brainwave Entrainment relaxation software, and hubby doing the driving.

 

Hubby had a stroke recently and is unable to drive the distance any more, so I had to move to the Choice program. Ever since, the VAMC is noncooperative with me. I even had to contact my Congressman to get them to make appointments, recommended by the Medical center which performed my operation.

 

I wound up going by ambulance to the local ER last November, due to an inability to breathe (I had a foot-long tumor in my abdomen which was putting pressure on my asthmatic lungs). Hubby called 911, and they sent an ambulance. VAMC refuses to pay the bills involved, declaring it was not an emergency. The local hospital refused to even treat the tumor (I think because VA told them they would not pay), discharging me from the ER, after telling me to be careful the tumor doesn't explode.

 

I eventually wound up at an obgyn office where they freaked out and started calling all over the state to try to get me help (even trying the governor's office). They eventually suggested an immediate ride to a major Med center, where I was refused treatment, but hubby refused to take me home, so they eventually did operate and removed the tumor.

 

Choice takes months to make me an appointment anywhere, sometimes pretending to be working on approval, for months, for a follow-up visit with a local pulmonologist, only to inform me right before the appointment that they were unable to get 'approval' from my primary. Like huh? My primary never refused me treatment before, and they could have told me 4 months before (or even during any phone call I made to them every two weeks in attempting to get authorization #, while they put me off by telling me they were sending it over to scheduling).

 

I absolutely HATE dealing with them any more!!!

 

I've put in NODs on their refusal to pay the bills. They claim non-emergency. I received 3 notices from VA refusing to pay the bills of that ER visit. I put in NOD's on all 3. I only heard back on one. It stated it was overturned. But they only listed the one bill collector on the overturned notice (yet I was told by billing that if the 'non-emergent' was overturned on the one refusal, it applied to all bills for that visit???). Yet today I received another denial from VA of a bill from that day, this time involving the ambulance bill.

 

I've tried billing, and gotten nowhere. I ask to speak to a supervisor. They laugh, tell me I can call their supervisor, but the supervisor isn't going to answer the phone. I've tried every person who is supposed to be in charge at the VAMC. They tell me whatever they think I want to hear, just stringing me along, and nothing changes. I finally got hold of the supervisor, but it got me nowhere - just shining me on.

 

I'm going to put in another NOD on this denial of the ambulance bill. But it appears to be hopeless. There is no one willing to fix the problems here. I'm frustrated and disgusted. Afraid of needing any emergency treatment, afraid of the bills.

 

I've now fallen backwards with my agoraphobia, due to the stress of it all. I've lost a lot of ground, afraid to leave the house again. I need to force myself out, trying to drive a few blocks on my own, despite the fears, trying to gain back some ground. It's hard. ?

 

Does anyone else have these problems dealing with these people?? It's just impossible...