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VA's contracting medical professionals
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Berta
Is your VA doc REALLY a VA doc?
"Our Providers
The "Our Providers" online directory lists the primary licensed independent practice providers who may be a lead, ongoing member of your treatment team at the respective VA medical center. Providers in the following occupations are listed on this website: physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, physician assistants, chiropractors, certified registered nurse anesthetists, optometrists, podiatrists, and psychologists.
By using this tool, you will be able to do a search of providers in the occupations listed above based upon your preferences and needs. For each provider, you will see the following: full name; gender; clinical product line to which they are "assigned"; where they received their medical training; and the school from which they received their medical degree. This information will be "refreshed" on a monthly basis. There may be staff who have been hired or who have departed the medical center since the last refresh of information.
For additional information on physicians, we also encourage you to use the "DocInfo" service offered by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) at http://www.docinfo.org. The FSMB website is updated monthly and is a public website to provide information related to any physician who is licensed in any US state, territory, or district."
https://www.va.gov/health/ourdoctors.asp
As you can tell contractors are in every aspect of VA health are these days.
The problem with that is, if they are negligent and/or malpractice on a vet, the options of FTCA and Section 1151,38 USC are lost.
The veteran would have to sue them or their contracting firm in a federal court.
This ticks me off and I have complained to OAWB about it....among other things.....
It cost me probably less than 200 bucks for file FTCA years ago. No lawyer would help me and I could not find any IMO doctor.
My costs were phone calls, xerox fees ( no printer/scanners then) , and many mailing fees, ( my evidence was impeccable and probative but it kept 'disappearing" from the VARO)and car gas to get to the closest law libraries.
This is funny now but not at the time- the closest county law library would charge for xeroxes from 38 USC . But they would only do 20 copies at a time.
I would have to go there and get 20 copies in the AM, then go back later in the day to get 20 more.No internet then as we know it now.
Also one day I was sitting on the floor in the law library in Corning NY, exhausted from hours spent going over anything I could find on VA.The library was soon to close and I stretched out my hand over papers on the floor ( they didnt have a good filing system, some documents were just stuck into the shelves.I decided to touch one more paper at random and read it and then get ready to leave.The paper was GOLDEN!!!!!! I was seeking ( but this is not needed for FTCA or 1151) a motive behind the VA malpratice I had found in my husband's medical records.
The paper was from Physicians M21 dated the same date the mapractice had begun (1988) the same year VA employed my husband.. The motive was clearly in that document.
I xeroxed it fast and drove home- elated that I found the Smoking GUN.I could have won without it. By I used it in my FTCA case.It revealed how and why VA can and will malpractice on employees.
A Federal court case will be be far more costly than that.I do not advise going Pro se in a federal court.
The contracting medical professionals do not always stay at the same VA. The VA site is updated monthly. You might have to go to the docinfo link or use other means to find out if they are real VA employees, to file any FTCA or Section 1151 actions against them.
I mentioned here before the Tally Case.
There was no doubt that VA had malpracticed on Mr. Tally.
But he was in California, where the SOL is only one year....not two.
VA told him and his lawyer it took them 8 months to determine his doctor was not a VA employee.
By then ,due to the time element of his FTCA- his SOL had run out-
I told his lawyer the OGC pulled some BS and his client. It took me mere minutes to find the above link from the VA.....
I feel the VA must start not only attaching C & P results to their deision, whether fromVA docs or contractors, but also having a better way to let vets know if their dotor, nurse, PA etc etc, is really employed by the VA.
As Mr Tally said- to the press- his VA doctor wore a VA employee ID thing, had an office in the VA, and nothing in her demeanor or actions revealed she did not work at the VA.
This is false representation in my opinion. Some Congressman is working on a bill to prevent this from happening but I think, if more vets complained about it to the WH Hot line and the OAWB, something would be done about it.
You all have the right to know if your medical are comes cfrom VA or from a non VA contractor. I am not saying these contractors are not good medically-
but then again, I thought all the VA doctors who malpracticed on my husband knew what they were doing.Fortunately in those days, they were all actual VA employees.
I heard recently that this same VAMC ( Bath NY ) is full of contractors now. Their last wrongful death case a few years ago involved a real VA doctor.
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