So I am finally back home, and will catch up on your blogs as soon as I can - I have missed you...but I tell ya, the next 6 weeks are HELL on earth for me, so please don't think I am ignoring you, just busy! NYC on Friday, then CHI, Las Vegas, Ft. Lauderdale and Birmingham...Laurie and Michelle - I am gonna see you I hope??
Anyway, I was at my sister's in MI this weekend. I snuck in a little trip to see her around my work conference in Saginaw. She was on the phone yesterday morning for ages, trying to navigate her way through her husband's VA benefits....or dare I really call them benefits...I am not so sure.
P. is a former SEAL, and has a couple of bad legs thanks to a parachute accident back in the 80s. Now he is even having trouble with his knees, so he got a letter approving him to see the ortho doctor of his choice in Grand Rapids...P has been seeing this doctor for several months, and before Thanksgiving the doctor wanted to give him some shot in his knee that would help with the pain I guess, but the day he was supposed to get the shot, the VA called and said, "NO, the ortho doctor can't give it to you since it is something the VA could provide..."
So P goes on, in pain, through the holidays waiting for the VA appointment. They finally called my sister's house yesterday at 9 am to tell him he had a 3pm appointment...in Battle Creek, MI (meanwhile he is at work). He needed to be on the shuttle by 10:30 am and they would put him up at the hospital for the night and then bring him back the next day. Not a problem that he has a full time JOB, and a raging blizzard is crossing Lake Michigan as we speak!
My sister tried to get the person to explain WHY he couldn't just drive 10 minutes to his ortho doctor, on his lunch hour, and get the shot, but they didn't have an answer...Then when she called back to see if he would be capable of driving himself home, if he drove himself there, they said that they didn't have the drug and so he couldn't have the appointment anyway.
I support our military, but I ask you, how much does that shuttle cost, how much gas, how much to put him up for the night AND feed him? AND if he had driven himself, they would have reimbursed his mileage at whatever the government rate is....so WHO is paying for all this?? I love my brother in law, but I think going 10 minutes to the Ortho down the road, and having private insurance (which they have) handle it, would be the more rational, economic, SANE route? Call me crazy, but....... (Crazy Butt)
5 comments:
No aspect of any system run by our government is sane. It's called, 'going 'round your ears to get to your ass.' Lordy.
Glad you're back... hope the next 6 weeks don't do you in! But if they do, look at it this way... at least you won't have to go to a VA hospital!
Given the disastrous economic situation in our country, that kind of incompetence is alarming
Government intelligence = oxymoron
@Diane thanks = glad to be home for 72 hours. and thanks for the reminder...I don't think I qualify for public assistance either, so I will just sit on the subway and mumble things about my sister...
@RB - I'm just sayin' - but think about how many people have JOBS! I mean there is the shuttle driver, the person at the shuttle stop who verifies everyone who gets on is legit, the housekeeper to clean the room he stays in, the telephone operator who calls to annoy patient's wives...the list goes on!
@Paul LOL....kinda like Health Care - there is no Care in the Health Industry
Why P thinks he needs to go through the VA is beyond me as well, being the wife... I guess he wants it all documented (so he says) Whatever... I know when I have pain i go take care of it asap. Then again, even my wonderful govt insurance makes me be the middle man for nearly every visit. Crazy! They should pay me for figuring things out for them, first I call the dr, then the insurance, then the dr, then the insurance, and we are a HEALTHY family, i feel awful for those that have actual serious claims!
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