We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:55:24 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Then there's this one: How Specialist Town lost his benefits. First up - I have no gripe with Specialist Town. Let's just get that out of the way up front. Eventually the rocket shrapnel was removed from Town's neck and his ears stopped leaking blood. But his hearing never really recovered, and in many ways, neither has his life. A soldier honored twelve times during his seven years in uniform, Town has spent the last three struggling with deafness, memory failure and depression. By September 2006 he and the Army agreed he was no longer combat-ready. But instead of sending... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html Tue, 27 Mar 2007 03:09:11 -0600 Dang, Chief! You must have really good anger-management skills. If you ever meet my wife, you'll be even more impressed. I mean, I assume that you didn't leave Bill's-thumbs-shaped dents on the laryngeal areas of those people's throats. Nope. But a couple of days later, I *did* chat up a few of the psych patients in the canteen and tell them the waiting area for the [fill-in-the-blank] clinic on the [fill-in-the-blank] wing stocked gurlie mags, but they had to sign them out from the receptionist...]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58324 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58324 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:51:24 -0600 Dang, Chief! You must have really good anger-management skills. I mean, I assume that you didn't leave Bill's-thumbs-shaped dents on the laryngeal areas of those people's throats. I do hope and trust that you let them know you were, like, a bit annoyed, though. Just for their edification and education, y'know. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58317 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58317 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:04:03 -0600 Working in the civilian sector of healthcare, I know some truth about what doctor's tell their patients about their benefits and then swear they never did. That is simply what doctors do. Some of it is because they genuinely think the person would be better off with XX care or XX equipment and their bedside manner includes re-assurances that "someone" will pay for it, not the patient who is freaking out and thinks surely the doctor would know (isn't his business about seeing patients and billing their insurance?). If the patients only knew how many services the doctor has unpaid on his own books because he doesn't know that payer X will or will not pay for service Y without Z diagnosis or history. A good for instance is also the patients co-pay responsibilities. Part of it is because the patient doesn't know their own benefits. Most people don't until they need it and then rely on someone else to tell them what is going to happen. As most should know, Medicare only pays 80% of most services leaving 20% up to the patient or their secondary insurance. So, the patient is seeing the doctor, the doctor orders the patient to start oxygen, the patient asks the doctor, "Is this covered by Medicare", the doctor answers, "Yes" and the patient leaves there thinking Medicare pays for it 100% and they will have no out of pocket expenses. Boy are they surprised to find out differently when we show up with the paperwork or call them on the phone for additional info. These doctors get no kick-back or fee for getting the patient on oxygen. There is no benefit for doctors to tell them anything about the coverage other than the doctor wanting the patient to leave there without stressing out and wanting to get the service that will keep them alive or get them better. So, overlaying that example to the military, as much as one might want to lay some giant conspiracy on the doors of these military doctors to be in cahoots with the military and VA in hornswaggling military guys out of their benefits (it makes us feel better because it means it can be controlled), it's really just about ignorance on the part of the doctors AND patients. They are trying to do what they think is "right" for their patient. If they think that the MEB process is too long and arbitrary and this guy was going to get sent back to Iraq, his doctor probably figured he was helping this guy out by getting him out the fastest way he knew how. The patient obviously wanted out and was willing to fast track it without looking it over first. This is the "sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true" part where someone in the military for seven years should have been smart enough to know to read and review the paperwork and policies. Would you buy a car or a house (equally long term investments) without reading the paperwork before you sign? Now the doc is being crucified for doing what he thought was best and is probably confused as heck because, he did say one part correctly, he doesn't do the benefits so why would he worry about them. Finally, though, regardless of whether it is a big conspiracy or not, this sort of problem with docs trying to take short cuts to circumvent the system and (as usual) screwing the patient, should be made public and should be addressed to the military doctors (tried talking to civilian docs and 1 out 5 gets it, the patients of the other 4 just kept coming to us with the same remark "the doctor said it was covered"). They need to be told that, if they are fast tracking their patients with this method, they are screwing them. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58315 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58315 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:42:26 -0600 Shesh. Once again I'm very proud of Fayetteville (Arkansas not Fayette-Nam, NC) VA system. As I mentioned my Doc calls me at home, leaves me messages, and for all attempts and purposes actually gives a rats durn. Of course he looks like a no-glasses, chubby version of Woody Allen, complete with Wild hair do. My wife calls him "The Mad Doc". But he is good at what he does, and what he doesn't do is give me medication for every stinking symptom on the planet. (My First doc at the VA in Buffalo did that. Drove me nuts) Back on topic. We covered a lot of this with the whole Walter Reed thing. The real problem, IMHO, is the red taped monster we have created. The pawns in the system, don't actually understand the system, therefor in a effort to help folks with the system sometimes cause more harm than good. We've created our own Little Shop of Horrors and it's a Giant Paper shredder shouting out "Feed me Seymour" for every DA Form http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58306 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58306 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:03:13 -0600 A glacial response is preferable to a response in the negative, which, in turn, is preferable to no response at all... Me: “Good morning -- I’m calling to check on the status of my appointment.” Receptionist at a Great Metropolitan VA Center: “You missed it.” Me: “’Scuse me? When was it?” RGMVAC: *sound of keyboard clickety-clicking* “Last Thursday, at 9am.” Me: “But I never got a notification, either by mail or phone!” RGMVAC: “We called the previous Thursday to notify you. At 10am.” Me: “I was in Virginia then. I checked the phone when I got back that night and there wasn’t any message from your office.” RGMVAC: “We have to speak with you, personally. We don’t leave messages.” Me: “Uhhhh -- okay. Just out of curiosity, do you have any openings today?” RGMVAC: “No, all our doctors have a full schedule.” Me [correlatory synapses firing in sequence]: “Oh-kaaaayyy, again, just out of curiosity, how many people do you have in the waiting area?” RGMVAC: “One.” Me: “One?!?” RGMVAC: “One. But he doesn’t have an appointment -- he just came here in case somebody cancels.” http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58304 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58304 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:43:51 -0600 Sadly, while my personal experience with the VA has been the glacial response, there's an awful lot of what you describe that's gone on with others. Sigh. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58296 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58296 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:03:15 -0600 I'm leaning toward the conclusion that there's a hard core Cabal of the Stupid actively working to increase their numbers in the VA. VA doc to former crewchief: "No, that cancer is not Agent Orange-related." [former crewchief removes document from his briefcase] FC: "It says here *pointing to relevant entry* that it is." VAD [glancing at entry]: "I haven't seen that before, so won't comment on it. It didn't come down through distribution." FC: "I downloaded it from the VA website." VAD [shrugging]: "Doesn't matter. It didn't come down through distribution." But I can see the rationale. In another ten years (if it takes that long), us Vietnam types will be out of their hair and it appears the Gulf War and OIF/OEF vets will only be a couple of decades behind us. All they have to do is wait us out and -- *poof!* -- budget problem solved... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58294 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/03/i_understand_wh.html#comment-58294 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:47:24 -0600