Need a forum where veterans can work together to make sure the Mission Act doesn't leave any veterans out

[warnerwh]

Greetings, I am on a mission to make sure veterans are not left to suffer or die as is currently the case with the Choice program. This problem is because if you live within 40 miles, soon to be 30 miles, you will be denied a local PCP. In Salem, Or as well as across the country the local VA facility is not taking new patients. The doctors here keep quitting and there were only 5 of 9 that were supposed to be there. I don't want to go into specifics but there are others across the country being denied. I was just denied again this week for community care because I have a local facility albeit worthless as it is. There was an email sent to many veterans regarding the Mission Act here: https://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/58621/new-eligibility-criteria-a-major-improvement-over-existing-rules/#comment-143897
If you read the comments at the bottom you will see there are others who want to make sure veterans aren't left to suffer and die like the Choice program allows. We need a forum where we can do private messaging and work together so that we can help those who are being denied care. There's a lot more to it. I'm working to make sure the Mission Act doesn't leave veterans high and dry. At least I was told the Mission Act is not yet written in stone and they are taking feedback. I have contacted my local representatives and now a few journalists. Please let me know if we can operate here somewhere. The .gov website doesn't allow private messages, will redact email addresses and is censoring.

Thank you,
Warner Holfeld

[Tbird]

You can private message each other on the board, but our forums are public so anything you would post would be publicly available. Do not post your email address on this or any public site it's just not safe.

[Vync]

I read that VA blog post when it came out. The public comment period on the new regulations closed on March 25th, but the VA waited until April 9th to post a link to the Federal Register where you could respond. Yeah, we could probably have tracked down the specific posting the old fashioned way, but it's a shame the VA did not make it any easier for us to respond.

In my opinion, basing the qualification on average drive time to the VA is not a very accurate approach. For example, yesterday it took me about an hour to drive to the VAMC parking deck and another 35 minutes to wait in line for the shuttle bus and get driven to the VAMC hospital. It's almost always like this. The VA is probably not factoring in the additional travel times.

I'm 100% P&T and my wife and children can use CHAMPVA, which is really great. They just go to a doctor, show their CHAMPVA card, and get treatment where and when they need it. No begging the VA for permission for community care and hoping they approve. They don't have to wait several weeks to get approval to finally get treatment. This is the way it really should be for veterans. If they still want to go to the VA, then great - let them. But if they need care quickly and don't want to endure a long drive or wait, the local community is the way to go.

I still like going to the VA for some things like neurosleep, neurology, dental (if I can ever get an appointment), prosthetics, labs, radiology, and their pharmacy services are great. However, I ran into some serious concerns with specialty clinic care from less experienced student doctors and their attending doctors who were relatively careless. It has happened multiple times and has ranged from being given overdose injections to them eagerly wanting to do surgery without performing adequate imaging to determine if surgery is necessary.

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by Vync