Why the disrespect for Vets with disability?

[hankpac]

I fired my last PCP through the Patient Advocate because she would tell me I needed to exercise and that my lung/breathing problems were just because I didn't exercise enough. So I tried jogging/running a few times, got massive headaches and almost passed out. So then she yelled at me for doing that. Then she yelled at me for not exercising. Then, when I had a diagnosis from my private MD, an actual MD, she scoffed and laughed at it...(she's just a PA). That was the last straw. I fired off secure messages to the Patient Advocate and let them know of every time I was yelled at in the exam room, the laughing at the diagnosis of an actual MD when she's just a PA, etc. PA was like, ".......wow." Yeah....yeah. What sucks though is there's only 2 PCP's here at my local CBOC...the PA and an NP but the NP I got switched to is way better and actually listens to you so that's nice. I am currently doing chiropractic care through Community Care and my chiro's wife is an RN at the clinic and we've talked about it before....one day he goes, "you didn't hear this from me but everything that you've said and told me....my wife and everyone, I mean EVERYone at the clinic, feels the same way about her and hates her. But shh." lol

Not to put too fine a point on this issue, but Vets who are seeing a Midlevel should know that they do NOT have to accept care from a midlevel, or even a doc that they don't like. Going through the Patient Advocate is a perfectly fine way of getting assigned to a different provider. It doesn't have to even be a questino of dislike. If the person is clearly incompetent, the ask to be switched. The guy I see is the Chief of Staff. In Oncology, the Chief of Oncology ( a highly respected and heavily published Oncologist) is my doc. If I don't like what I am hearing from a consultant, I say something immediately.
One thing about this though.( not necessarily to the OP, but anyone in this position) Do it politely. Calm and quiet, talk to someone about the issue. Storming about, cursing and other acting out bullshit, gets you nowhere. Write a note to the Patient Advocate, that lays out the issues, and what you want (a switch to another provider). THIS WORKS.
an insight: NP's and PA's and even recently graduated Doctors, often think they can get a cushy job at the VA, with small patient loads, with little to no experience. The other place they go is Rural Health clinics. So it is not unreasonable, when you first met a new Provider, to ask, "What's your background, Where did you place in your graduating class? What specialty training did you attend? How long have you been practicing? Where else have you worked?" Someone tells me he or she just graduated, hasn't worked anywhere else, I'm going to want another provider. On the other hand, someone tells me, 1st in class, trained at Duke, Spent 3 years at Mayo, and I probalby am going to feel pretty comfotable. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO ASK! I mean, you'd ask a mechanic if he'd ever torn down and rebuilt a transmission before you let him touch your truck, right?

 

[stefan73]

To piggyback off this as well, we saw some guys in the PX one day with filthy ass uniforms, walking around starry-eyed and in awe. The main Liberty PX was either the biggest or second biggest PX in Iraq in 2005-2006 and sold steaks, mountain bikes, tvs, Playstations, clothes, etc....basically a Walmart Supercenter at that point. They had been running missions up and down the main routes for days on end with barely a day off, let alone seeing Shangri-La in person.

We stopped and talked to them for a few minutes and they were like, "so wait, you guys could come here every day if you wanted? Like, just for fun?"
Well, I mean, yeah, our trailers are only like 1-2 miles down the road on Camp Victory and there's buses that run every 15-30mins or we have vehicles we can drive.
".........whoaaaaaaaa..................wow........"

lol

VBC was truly a different place for sure but also perks of the base when the CG of Iraq has his office there and there's like 5 or 6 other 1-2 star Generals on base. Gotta make things nice and pretty for them.

Let's not even discuss the Embassy chow hall behind the Republican Palace....and it's real silverware and waiters that would take your plates and get you new drinks.

Those were probably my guys. We were down there once and they tried to deny my guys entry into the chow hall because of how dirty they were, it got a little heated and then an NCO cooled it down. I about totally lost my military bearing. Once they knew we were "out the wire" every day and what we drove through to get there they were cool. Some of the people that were on BIAP never went out of the wire and never left BIAP except to redeploy.

I went to the Green Zone embassy chow line. That food was no joke. My little combat outpost (COP Shield) up in Rusafa had a KBR contractor that everybody called "Mom". She cooked for us like she was cooking for family, it was pretty good.

 

[stefan73]

Don't know how I missed this thread. My VA experience was long and hard, but nothing like this. So glad it didn't take me 10 years to get everything straightened out.

What kills me worse than the runaround from government red tape at the VA is comments from leftist assholes who think I don't deserve it. I would speak out saying that it's not right for people to have to pay off the student loans of others... and I get backlash at being supported by my VA disability... Despite the fact that I earned it by serving 28 years in uniform, only to have some haji blow my truck out from under me while deployed serving... on orders from my government...

I'm 100% BTW, total & permanent.

The VA and care from it is a part of the contract we agreed to for the job we did.

 

[tyman]

Not to put too fine a point on this issue, but Vets who are seeing a Midlevel should know that they do NOT have to accept care from a midlevel, or even a doc that they don't like. Going through the Patient Advocate is a perfectly fine way of getting assigned to a different provider. It doesn't have to even be a questino of dislike. If the person is clearly incompetent, the ask to be switched. The guy I see is the Chief of Staff. In Oncology, the Chief of Oncology ( a highly respected and heavily published Oncologist) is my doc. If I don't like what I am hearing from a consultant, I say something immediately.
One thing about this though.( not necessarily to the OP, but anyone in this position) Do it politely. Calm and quiet, talk to someone about the issue. Storming about, cursing and other acting out bullshit, gets you nowhere. Write a note to the Patient Advocate, that lays out the issues, and what you want (a switch to another provider). THIS WORKS.
an insight: NP's and PA's and even recently graduated Doctors, often think they can get a cushy job at the VA, with small patient loads, with little to no experience. The other place they go is Rural Health clinics. So it is not unreasonable, when you first met a new Provider, to ask, "What's your background, Where did you place in your graduating class? What specialty training did you attend? How long have you been practicing? Where else have you worked?" Someone tells me he or she just graduated, hasn't worked anywhere else, I'm going to want another provider. On the other hand, someone tells me, 1st in class, trained at Duke, Spent 3 years at Mayo, and I probalby am going to feel pretty comfotable. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO ASK! I mean, you'd ask a mechanic if he'd ever torn down and rebuilt a transmission before you let him touch your truck, right?

Unfortunately, unless I want to drive an hour or request Community Care, there's only 2 providers at my local CBOC clinic here. The PA I fired and my new NP I got.

 

[tyman]

Those were probably my guys. We were down there once and they tried to deny my guys entry into the chow hall because of how dirty they were, it got a little heated and then an NCO cooled it down. I about totally lost my military bearing. Once they knew we were "out the wire" every day and what we drove through to get there they were cool. Some of the people that were on BIAP never went out of the wire and never left BIAP except to redeploy.

I went to the Green Zone embassy chow line. That food was no joke. My little combat outpost (COP Shield) up in Rusafa had a KBR contractor that everybody called "Mom". She cooked for us like she was cooking for family, it was pretty good.

Yup, we had a team get denied access to the chow hall one day too. They were on a 3-day mission and came back to the chow hall right away from it. There was no going over the E7s head though. They were denied and not happy.

The Embassy also had a little sandwich shop inside of it down from the rotunda that was awesome and had panini presses. xD

 

[hankpac]

Unfortunately, unless I want to drive an hour or request Community Care, there's only 2 providers at my local CBOC clinic here. The PA I fired and my new NP I got.

Yes, I definitely get that. For Chronic care (HTN, Diabetes, etc), that's fine. Thee should be a civilian clinic already approved by the VA for Emergent Care. If the system isn't meeting your needs, you can ask for full time, Community Care, and get your Authorizations renewed as needed.

 

[oneshot86]

This is a great topic.
I hope guys that aren't getting care, understand this is an option that they rate.

Keep sharing

 

[norcalAF]

Lol. Why shoot down planes when you can kill the pilots and maintainers or just put thermite grenade on a wing? Or blow up the fuel bunkers? Our forward bases are tough nuts, but the ones in the US are sitting ducks. The Chinese are far more active and have a much larger presence in the US than the Russians ever did.

But maybe I’m wrong. A handful of Ragheads wiped out a whole bunch of planes at Camp Bastion in 2012. Those were Marines that died, right? And the base was run by the Brit’s? Then as you were. No one would do that to the USAF.

I was at Bastion when that happened. The enemy had pretty good Intel. They hit the base during a scheduled alarm drill. We (my unit) didn't know they hit us until the next morning.

 

[Daddyusmaximus]

The VA and care from it is a part of the contract we agreed to for the job we did.

Not me... I was a stupid 17 year old at the time... lol. I just wanted to drive tanks.
Might have crossed my mind during one of my re-ups later on though.

 

[tyman]

Yes, I definitely get that. For Chronic care (HTN, Diabetes, etc), that's fine. Thee should be a civilian clinic already approved by the VA for Emergent Care. If the system isn't meeting your needs, you can ask for full time, Community Care, and get your Authorizations renewed as needed.

Yeah I mean our local regional hospital is “in network” for emergent care through VA. But for PCP, we have a local CBOC clinic with the 2 providers for daily/routine care. One of the 2 is the one I fired though.

 

[hero's machine]

My dad is the most stubborn man alive. He was born in a US prison camp because grandpa was a Japanese American. He used that as a catalyst to become unbreakable.

I watched my dad fight the VA for about 15 years. It was so bad that even I told him to give it up. His MOS was fueler and when he landed in country was moved without record trail. He had hours video of what they were doing and it spanned over two tours. He had video of him tore up from shrapnel.

All the VA had to do was watch 15 minutes of a dvd he prepared and it would have supported his claim without question.....but they wouldn't.

At the end of the road on his last appeal he rode the elevator with the judge who was over his case and made a joke about the way he was dressed. When dad faced that same man he thought he was done, but the guy agreed to look at his dvd.

My dad was awarded 400% and back pay for at least a decade for him and my stepmother who was his provider. They built him a house, bought him a van and he gets treated like a full bird now.

I can't imagine how many others are in the same shoes as my dad. Keep your chin up and press on.

Good luck and thank you for what you've done.