Phony General? (now with added Phony Goodness)

[ussfa344]

Keith,

You bring up a good point about incompetent physicians. For the rest of you, I want to make sure everyone knows that you have the right to fire your VA physician. I fired one within five minutes of walking in his office. He was an arrogant SOB and I refused to let him treat me. Guys, as veterans that is our right. Don't let them fool you. You may have to fill out a form explaining why you fire them, but that's fine. Fill it out so that they know they have a problem with that individual. You do not have to submit to the care of a VA physician for whom you don't care. The only downside is that you should only do this if you absolutely have to. You may run out of options or earn a reputation. I fired that physician about 15 years ago and the subsequent treatment that I have received did not seem to suffer in any way.

Over the last forty plus years I have had wonderful VA physicians with the exception of that one jerk, but I did not even let that jerk examine me. They treat me well and I always feel that they go the extra mile to insure that my needs are all met. Maybe all of my other VA physicians spoiled me and when he displayed that "couldn't be bothered" attitude with me it set me off.

Robert

[1CAVCCO15MED]

To my knowledge there is no place to go and check on the competence of a physician beforehand unless it is to go to court records on how many lawsuits have been filed against them. Disciplinary actions against the physician within the medical staff are considered private and are not available without a subpoena. Medical staff are reluctant to discipline errant doctors because of fear of a lawsuit. In many places there just isn't any supervision by the medical staff. Oh, they all point to their medical staff review boards but if they never take action they are just camouflage to hide incompetents. That is why malpractice lawsuits are a vital if very flawed check on bad physicians. Many times that is all there is to get rid of a incompetent. If they lose so many lawsuits they will lose their malpractice insurance. After thirty five years in the health care field and someone asked me how do you tell if a doctor is competent I would have to say if you know a nurse that works there to ask them. Even that is not always reliable because they are told to say all physicians are competent. To say otherwise is to endanger their jobs in many places. They have to decide if they can trust you to not let that information get back to their employer. Plus they could get called into a lawsuit to testify what they based that judgement upon.

[5thgrpguy]

Gents,

While we all agree that fraud is rampant in the VA system, I feel that most VA Dr.'s are very caring people, striving to do the very best job they can, at least that has been my experience here in Dallas. But most of them I see here are not old enough to remember WWII, Korea or Vietnam and very few have been involved in the GWOT and as a result what do they know about combat? Only what they read or are told...so, a well read phony can approach them and make them believe that they experienced the BS they are selling, backed up by phony letter's and documents and bingo....they get benefits...it is like any kind of fraud that is commited and It appears to be especially easy if they are really a veteran, who is going to challange a guys 214 that may have been altered unless it is very obvious in a system that is so overloaded? All we can do as vets that have actually experienced combat is continue to out these phonies and put pressure on the sytem to prosecute the ones that continue to spew their BS...As we all know some douche in Illinois is attempting to challange Stolen Valor..these people make me sick...What kind of message is this country sending to our young men and women in harms way?

[SuperScout]

Admittedly, this is way off topic, but the message being relayed to our enemies about how we accept the word of a known terrorist over the word of a US Navy SEAL is self-defeating at its apex. So what if that raghead POS got whacked across the face with a wet towel? So what if he got a tap-tap in his little hate-filled tummy?

Why every congressperson isn't on the steps of the Capitol protesting the proposed court martial of these SEAL's is amazing to me.

On the topic of DD 214's - real or othewise - just how hard is it for someone to create one with PhotoShop or some other software package, and then sell them for others to fill in the blanks and reap the rewards?

[1CAVCCO15MED]

I have said before, there are sites to get most anything. Blank DD 214s are illegal now but I am sure they can be made. Sites like the following are a big part of the problem. I am thinking of graduating my Basset hound from jump school just to prove I can.

http://www.military-certificates.com/

[1CAVCCO15MED]

In fact, maybe that is what we need to do to prove how easy it is. In fact, if someone will PM me a class number and dates I will do it. Imagine having the first airbourne Basset hound!

http://www.military-certificates.com...c%20School.htm

[SuperScout]

Rather than patronize this website, I think a better solution would be to mount a black-ops and simply remove them from stealing oxygen.

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Here is the best part, they claim to all be disabled veterans. What is sad is that they may be telling the truth.

[SuperScout]

Originally Posted by 1CAVCCO15MED

Here is the best part, they claim to all be disabled veterans. What is sad is that they may be telling the truth.

And this is what makes my butt want to squirt buttermilk: why is it that a disabled vet is supposed to get carte blanche to do crazy stuff? I don't give a sh*t if they are quadruple Purple Heart double-amputees, they should not be enabling wannabees to commit fraud. Just like people trying to rationalize the criminal behavior of Charlie Rangel, because he's a Korean War vet who has a Purple Heart. BFD. Send him to jail.

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Couldn't agree with you more. Sorry about the airbourne dog. Lack of common sense.