IF YOU ARE A SUICIDAL VETERAN, PLEASE GET HELP. YOU CAN CALL, TEXT, OR CHAT WITH SOMEONE AT THE VETERANS CRISIS LINE.
I'm not fooling myself and I'm not trying to fool you. I haven't been to war. I wasn't some amazing soldier who lived and breathed for the Army Way. Don't get me wrong. I love my country. I was willing to sacrifice everything for her. But truth be told, for me, serving in the Army was nothing more than social hour. I enjoyed hanging out with my friends all day and then going back to the barracks and hanging out with them some more.
I'm not going to explain why I go to the VA. I'm not going to bother you with the details of my lengthy medical record. Suffice it to say, we aren't talking about Traumatic Brain Injury and severed limbs.
Recent studies have shown that every day, something like 22 veterans kill themselves. I don't know how they came up with that number. Even if we are only talking about 1 veteran, that one person is someone important. One is entirely too many.
My journey with the VA started a few years ago in Florida. One day, I had asked to speak with a nurse regarding some test results. She didn't even try to hide her disdain. "Don't you have health insurance? Why aren't you seeing another doctor?"
I responded with "Yes, I have health insurance. And this is a benefit I've earned. It's not charity."
And yet, so many of us are talked to like we are a charity case, getting health insurance for free.
That's when I decided that I wasn't going through the VA anymore. It simply wasn't worth the effort or loss of dignity.
Fast forward a few years to another state.
I've been trying to get an appointment with a specialist for close to a month now (since 08/19/2015, specifically). The receptionist that takes my calls always sounds like she's pissed off at whoever is interrupting her game of Mahjong. (I know dealing with us cranky ass vets isn't exactly easy. But that's because dealing with the VA isn't exactly a piece of cake.) We shall call this woman "Fancy".
Veterans Choice was passed because soldiers were being put on waiting lists a mile long. There are two criteria.
- You have been (or will be) waiting more than 30 days for VA medical care
- You live more than 40 miles away from a VA medical care facility or face one of several excessive travel burdens.
That means that, should I qualify, I should be able to call another doctor within the program and get an appointment.
Easy, right?
LOL
No.
I called the VA to schedule an appointment. The kind gentleman explained to me that I couldn't get an appointment because the VA appointment system cannot accept appointments that there were no appointments available. He couldn't schedule one for me because the system won't allow him to schedule any appointments greater than 90 days out. He explained that he would be transferring me to Veterans Choice and they would help me.
The very nice lady I spoke with explained that an appointment greater than 30 days out had to be on the books in order for me to qualify for Veterans Choice. I explained the system wouldn't allow him to schedule an appointment. She transferred me to someone who should be able to "reevaluate my eligibility".
The next woman was so condescending and rude. She explained that I need to have an appointment greater than 30 days out. There was nothing she could do to help me. I would need to talk to my doctor in order to get them to do a "non-VA care referral". Which didn't make sense. "How am I supposed to talk to my doctor if I can't get an appointment?" Obviously she's never worked with the VA. "Dear," sarcasm oozing from her voice, "call your doctor's office and speak to someone at the front desk."
At this point, I was already well over my lunch break. Apparently, the VA assumes every veteran using their services must have nothing better to do that sit by the phone.
A friend of mine suggested I call the VA and request to file a complaint. Which is what I did.
The gentleman (let's call him Complaint Department Man) I spoke with mentioned having his own issue with Veterans Choice. When he tried to get an appointment through them, they actually gave him his own phone number to call for additional assistance. But all was not lost. He contacted neurology for me.
Fancy called me. "He doesn't need to see you until November." She set the appointment for November.
"I know. I need to see him."
"Why?" she asked. It's a reasonable question, I suppose. But I don't think she really wanted to know why. She wanted me to convince her to give me an appointment.
"Because my symptoms are getting worse."
"Like, how?" I could almost hear her contemplating which tile to move next.
"Like, just worse."
"I will have him call you."
The neurologist called me. "If you were to come into my office today, here's what I would tell you to do..." he doubled my prescription. I explained I wouldn't have enough pills. "I will call in a new prescription today."
(The VA fills their prescriptions through mail order. Last time I refilled my prescription, it took 14 days for them to arrive. They say 10 days. I reckon they are using Drill Sergeant time. I ended up running out of meds a few days before they arrived in the mail. The resulting pain was absolutely excruciating. I have never in my life ever experienced anything like that.)
I waited the week and a half for the prescription. When it didn't come, I went to an Urgent Care Clinic using my insurance. I had to see a new doctor, who was reasonably concerned about writing a new prescription for a patient he had just met. But he was nice and offered enough to last a little over a week. No worries, that should have been long enough for the mail to arrive.
A couple of days later, when the medication still hadn't arrived, I called the department's front desk and interrupted Fancy's Mahjong game again. (Sorry, Fancy!)
"It says here that you already had a prescription filled this month."
"Yes. I know. But he doubled my prescription so I ran out."
"Hold on," she pretended to read something. Really, she was studying her tiles. "The last prescription that was filled was a few weeks ago."
"He was supposed to refill them."
She sounded like she didn't believe me. "I will have him call you."
The neurologist called me later that day. "So is that helping you at all?" he asked.
"Yes and now I'm out of pills. You said you were going to refill them."
"I wanted to follow up with you to make sure that was working." I am only 50% certain I heard him suggest a tile move to Fancy.
"The last time I ran out, the pain was excruciating."
He goes, "Aw, I'm sorry." But he didn't sound sorry. He hand-to-my-heart and honest-to-God didn't sound sorry, at all. He sounded like he wanted me off of the phone. "I will put in this prescription today."
This was last Tuesday.
As soon as I hung up with him, I submitted a request to Senator Hatch's office. One of his representatives called me back really quickly. She suggested I speak with Complaint Department Man. After a couple of moves playing phone tag, I spoke with him today. He explained that he will see if he can help me get qualified for Veterans Choice. But, he doesn't think it will move much faster. Apparently, it takes Veterans Choice 2-3 weeks to call patients, then they are scheduling 2 weeks out. It's going to end up being not much faster than the appointment I currently have.
But, if this process had started 3 weeks ago when I initially called...
Then I asked him if he could verify that Doctor Mahjong had really ordered the prescription. "That order was submitted on September 11th."
I said, "Friday?!? He submitted it on Friday?!?" He submitted it for mail order on Friday...even though I spoke with him on Tuesday.
Then Complaint Department Man said, "I'll go to the pharmacy and tell them to put a rush on this."
Which means...it hasn't left the pharmacy yet.
I scheduled an appointment with my (non-VA) doctor. He happily refilled my prescription. But remember that kind doctor who gave me a week? Apparently, insurance didn't recognize it as a one week prescription. "The next one can't be refilled until October 5th." No problem. I'll just pay for it out of my own pocket.
The cost? $172.
My initial call for help was made on 08/16/2015. Today is 09/14/2015 and I still haven't received the help I need.
I don't have a severed leg. I don't have PTSD or TBI. But I do have a service connected disability and I seem to be having a very difficult time finding someone, anyone (in the VA system) who really gives a damn.
No comments:
Post a Comment