This Will NOT Make You Happy

[JeffL]

Millions lost at military hospitals
Poor records, fraud drain funds from patients, GAO says
David Pace - Associated Press
Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Washington --- Record-keeping at some military hospitals is so bad that millions of dollars in insurance payments are being lost and hundreds of patients may be using the Social Security numbers of dead people to get free health care, congressional investigators say.

The General Accounting Office, in a review of military hospitals in Georgia, Virginia and Texas, said it also found potentially fraudulent uses of government credit cards and inadequate records of prescription drug inventories and usage.


Here's the whole article.........

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epa...a30e100b2.html



Jeff

[Keith_Hixson]

If you gave each Veteran a Medical Card. Let them pick and choose their doctors. 1. They'd probabaly get better medical care. 2. Closer to home for many 3. And cut the cost of VA medical by half.

But, nobody will listen to me.

Keith

[janecallanan]

Keith,
We always listen to you. Just pretend not to sometimes. Hasn't anyone ever brought this up to the people who could make the laws change?

[Keith_Hixson]

It could save us so much money. But, its a control thing. Somebody thinks it will get out of control. However, the bureaucracy is out of control. It's costing us untold billions to operate the Veterans Medical System in the backwards way it is being run. We'd save billions and of course there would be abuses, but there is abuses in the present system. What a draw for getting people to join the arm services. You serve two years active and four years reserve, we'll take care of your medical needs. I think it would work and do a much better job than what we have going now and serve the veterans and government a like.

Keith

[JeffL]

Keith, you know that no government wonks care about what we common folk believe.

When I signed up for VA medical benefits (I don't need them now, but who knows what may happen tomorrow?) I was told that I needed to get a VA ID card. I fought and fought and FOUGHT to get a damned card. This office didn't issue them, that office's equipment was down, the other office was too busy, yadda yadda yadda. After a whole friggin' YEAR of fighting the system, it finally turned out that the damned card did NOT provide the promised automatic acceptance into the VA medical system, other than at the office at which one signed up. I was more than slightly upset...

The bottom line? I was told to carry a copy of my DD-214 with me at all times, in case I had to use VA facilities somewhere other than where I signed up. Even the clinics near me are part of separate VA systems, and NONE of the VA's local offices - in the whole country - are tied into a national VA database that's accessable in the offices.

What a sham. And what a shame.

[Drywall]

I have a VA card that is so old, it's made of paper. I must have had it for 30 years or more. I can only assume that it's not the same card you are talking about. All it says is Veterans Administration, Fort Snelling, St. Paul, MN. with a file number starting with a "C". Luckily I have never needed any of the medical bennies from them as we both have good ins. thru our jobs. Would it even be worth the time and hassle to get a new one? For me, I don't think so. I think that the guys who really need help should be able to get it without guys like me slowing up the system. I'm only referring to my own situation and feelings here.

[JeffL]

Drywall, the one to which I refer looks like a credit card. It's all flashy & multi-colored & beautiful looking on the front and has a magnetic strip on the back. But for all practical purposes, it offers the same things as your paper card.

I suggest that you visit your local VA clinic to make sure you're in their system. If not, fill out the forms and get into it; then any VA clinic can call that clinic and confirm that you have registered. And put a copy of your DD-214 in the glove compartment. You may plan on NEVER using the VA, but one never knows when one will have to use the VA, and since we're eligible for this "benefit," we should be prepared to make things as simple as possible for ourselves - and for anyone else (like spouses) who may be with us at that trying time.


The CG motto applies to this situation - Semper Paratus. I also like the old Latin adage: Anus Protectus.
Jeff

[Boats]

Keith,

I suggested that ten years ago. My brother-in-law did get a VA card but they don't issue them any longer. Everything is based on your social security number. But I agree if we could go to any doctor submit the card and let the paper trail go back it would most likely result in better care.

I don't want to slam the VA clinics they do what they can but under better control they could do better. The red tape needs to be cleaned up and then it will become more streamlined.

Today the cost of shuffling paper out cost the cost to see and take care of a patient. Most patients get 5 or 10 minutes of time with a doctor and the rest of the time you are waiting and waiting. This cost they never consider - our time!

The whole system needs an overhaul but with less red tape. The patients bill-of-rights needs to be rearranged so that we are their main focus not the process of paper submitals and sworn affadavids.

My medical bills and my wifes are going up and up each year the VA will not handle any of her's but mine is slow in coming. Have to wait 90 days between appointments unless your near death or have some emergency.

God help those who are in worse shape than me. That Article 99 movie comes back to me when I think of all the crap men have to go through just to get some medical attention. Burns me up.

[theoddz]

Just think of the crap we WOMEN have to go through to get care in the VA!!

In 1996, 3 days before Christmas, I suffered an asthma attack on the heels of a respiratory bug. I was 9-1-1'd to the Richmond, Virginia VAMC emergency room. At the time, I was 50% service connected. I was wheezing up a storm and had a fever of 102.3 degrees. I know I also had a pneumonia, because I saw the x-ray report later. Guess what?? Some little moronic imbecile who called himself a "doctor" there (he was a resident, not an experienced physician) discharged me home in an ambulance 4 hours later. The reason I was not admitted was that I am a FEMALE VETERAN and female vets take up beds that male vets can use more efficiently. Female veterans must be given rooms with private bathrooms, unless there happens to be another female vet available to share a multi-bed room with.

Am I angry????

You bet your sweet @ss I am.

Peace.

[JeffL]

"...vets take up beds that male vets can use more efficiently."

Did you get the name of the jerk who told you this? I wasn't aware that medical situations had anything to do with efficiency.

"...discharged me home in an ambulance 4 hours later."

Discharged to your home in an ambulance? Please, I beg of you, please tell me that you didn't have to pay for the ambulance.

What a travesty. I feel terrible about what happened to you. The problem is, I'm not surprised. That's a real problem with me.

While I understand the necessity of privacy between the sexes, I don't want to believe that any vet would object to sharing a room with another vet, particularly with the privacy curtains and screens that are available nowadays. I realize, of course, that I am probably in a vast minority (oxymoron?) in this belief.

This system is broken. I doubt that it will ever be fixed; after all, vets don't mean all that much any more, do we? Thrown onto the scrapheap of US humanity, we're those people who others think were dumb enough to think that they might have meant a difference for this country.