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So we all have our gripes ... What are our answers?
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Disabled Veterans
GI Bill
Management
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 25
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Simple. After working 20 years at the the. VA. Change the rules so federal workers who screw up can be fired w/o going through 2-4 years of appeals, etc. the rule in the VA is fuck up ... Move up. That's how they handle bad employees. That's why it's bad
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MSG (Join to see)
CW3 James Bradley I believe to get to the root of this, "they" will have to drill down to Federal Employee Unions.
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SFC William Farrell
MSG (Join to see) - Im not sure about that Sarge. I worked for Navy and Air Force as a civilian and the unions were useless. Maybe at a different level they are not but at my low level they were totally useless.
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Give EVERY veteran what's due to them with question or a bunch of red tape.
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SPC(P) Patrick Westbrook
How does anyone know what is due to them? If we have everyone claiming 100%, whats the point in retiring, it would be a quick way to get a paycheck every month without doing anything. That would push our country deeper into debt and we would have literally no one serving, people would join be like 'Im gonna do one month, claim ptsd, shoulders from the pushup, back from the situps, knees from the run, and anything else under the sun. That's not whats due to them. Thats people taking advantage of a system for their benefit. We do get punished for everything we have to do. I have hearing loss and documented, but that ringing in my ears isnt 'tinnitus' and isn't service connected. That constant back pain I have from my injury in Germany from 2009 took 15 months to get compensation from my ETS date to evaluate even though I had evidence from that injury, leading to my deployments where I was not effective since I had to go see the PA because I almost passed out due to the pain. That happened twice. My unit labeled me as deployable when I was under evaluation when I came to drum, had to cut the evaluation out to deploy and the process stopped. If you have documentation, yes you are due, but other than that, sorry, we wouldn't have a military at that point.
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SFC Jesse Vazquez Jr /G\
I knew i was in trouble when i went to the VA to present my claim, i got into the elevator and the other person in the elevator told me to press 10th floor for him and the elevator only went up to the 2nd floor. So i knew he was just trying to act crazy to get a higher % disability. I merely only requested what i was evaluated for after proudly serving 20 years.
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SSG Trust Palmer
Every request looked into with reason. It's not that hard. We complicate things for no reason.
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At this point, I think we should shut the clinics down and replace it with the voucher system they use for veterans who live further than 40 miles from a VA clinic. The VA as it is now is unsustainable. There are too many patients, and not enough personnel to help us. I was having a rough time transitioning, and needed help when I first got out. It took three months to get my first appointment, even after telling them certain things that should have put anyone at the top of the list. The following three appointments were rescheduled at the last minute. I ended up paying out of pocket to see a civilian doctor. On top of that, some of these clinics are nightmarish. Felons in prison have better medical facilities than they provide for us. The VA is a complete failure and an embarrasment, and the only option I can think of to improve it is a government VA card that gives access to real doctors who have time to see their patients in real hospitals.
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SFC Jerry Humphries
I also like the ideal of a voucher system, but there will have to be oversight. And I also wonder if that kind of system would be capped. I want the best for our wounded and injured vets the deserve the best we can do for them, Not what they got now.
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SP5 Rolland Riehn
The main p0itfall of a voucher system is fraud. Medicare and Medicaide are so over run with fraud, its a really large percentage of the claims every year. The fraudsters would quickly find a way to do the same in the voucher system.
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SPC John Adams
Well, fraud plagues everything, and is unavoidable. People are scamming the VA as I type, but there are measures that can taken to make fraudulent claims as difficult as possible for scammers to make.
I hate simply calling it a government health insurance plan due to the universal health care debacle, but that's sort of what I have in mind. You go into the office, apply for the insurance in person with your DD-214 (dishonorable, bad conduct, etc still gets nothing) and any other required documentation, and then it acts like medical insurance, except Uncle Sam pays the bill. I imagine an office for registration could be placed in the hospitals themselves. With the money saved by shutting down the clinics, there could be more money for real drugs, and not just the generic stuff.
I do, however see some issues and challenges with it, namely getting approved for disability percentages. That would have to go through certified and approved physicians to avoid scamming. The cost and payment for medication would also raise an issue that would have to be resolved. The benefit is that wait times would go down drastically, as vets won't be subject to only a handful of overworked medical personnel. The quality of work would also be much higher, from my experience of going from the VA to civilian medical. Another thing of great importance is that civilian doctors are far less likely to laugh at, or ignore patients with severe mental issues, leading to the suicides or worse, nor would the majority of civilian doctors cram vets into unsanitary pits of despair full of black mold and extremely negligent staff. Both of which are far too common. Some of those clinics, like the one I first went to in Galveston, should probably be condemned.
This is just one possibility, I'm up for any and all suggestions. I want things to get better for all of us, so that we get the care and support that we earned through our service.
I hate simply calling it a government health insurance plan due to the universal health care debacle, but that's sort of what I have in mind. You go into the office, apply for the insurance in person with your DD-214 (dishonorable, bad conduct, etc still gets nothing) and any other required documentation, and then it acts like medical insurance, except Uncle Sam pays the bill. I imagine an office for registration could be placed in the hospitals themselves. With the money saved by shutting down the clinics, there could be more money for real drugs, and not just the generic stuff.
I do, however see some issues and challenges with it, namely getting approved for disability percentages. That would have to go through certified and approved physicians to avoid scamming. The cost and payment for medication would also raise an issue that would have to be resolved. The benefit is that wait times would go down drastically, as vets won't be subject to only a handful of overworked medical personnel. The quality of work would also be much higher, from my experience of going from the VA to civilian medical. Another thing of great importance is that civilian doctors are far less likely to laugh at, or ignore patients with severe mental issues, leading to the suicides or worse, nor would the majority of civilian doctors cram vets into unsanitary pits of despair full of black mold and extremely negligent staff. Both of which are far too common. Some of those clinics, like the one I first went to in Galveston, should probably be condemned.
This is just one possibility, I'm up for any and all suggestions. I want things to get better for all of us, so that we get the care and support that we earned through our service.
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Very simple. Get rid of 30% at least of the fluff (administrators) and hire some more doctors. It is the only way wait times can be reduced, and services can be provided.
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Develop new systems and tracking capabilities for veterans (all areas), improve outreach programs, Audit/inspect organizations who say their mission is to prevent veteran homelessness. Just to name a few
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MSG (Join to see)
LTC Sonya Friday Do you think it possible to implement these without growing the Beast, Ma'am?
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LTC Sonya Friday
Yes I do, streamline some of the current processes, revised SOW for upcoming year for current contracts. EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE veterans. All VA facilities should be operating on a common operating picture, at the current time they are not. Believe me I'm living this right now so I'm speaking from experience
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LTC Sonya Friday
To all who are reading this I'm trying to become part of the solution by getting a job with VA so I can make a difference. Can't seem to get my foot in the door even as a veteran. If anyone can assist please let me know I'm in the DC area
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Allow veterans go see a doctor of their choice for examination, one that's a specialist in whatever, hearing, back, trauma, PSTD, etc. Not one that's a VA specialist that's two hours away, when you have a top 10 rated doctor in the state that actually lives 5 doors down from you, and has a practice 30 minutes away...yes that was me...moving on. Get collaborating evidence from a second doctor for confirmation, have a VA doctor who is familiar or specializes and review the case without the vet actually having being there and going two hours out of the way. And then deciding on the rating...the vet can then appeal for a higher rating which would require him to goto a VA specialist and go through the horrendous trials and tribulations that is the VA. 9/10 the vet has a hearing related issue that hasn't been resolved...or has back issues and is documented for the past 5 years after a training exercise. Or a broken limb, fractured..etc...you get what I am saying, stuff that's documented. Getting out you have 180days of tricare prime...once you go to a doctor for a VA related case, you keep the insurance until the claim is closed to prevent the vet from paying for it that would prevent vets from paying out of pocket for the duration. Once the 180 days pass you can say you had your chance, you had a brief(oh did I forget to mention institute either a packet or a brief saying 180 for claims, do that, yeah that...or during out processing a doctor talks to you and says what do you want to claim, 'x','y', and 'q') and now you're submitting something? If they have a reason why they didn't file, a good reason, not one like I had a cold...my mother passed or something detrimental to them...in a coma(extreme one, I know). After 180 days we could say, you had a chance for free where its on the GOVT bill, but if you want to file for something, pay out of pocket and you have to go to a VA medical official, if they find its service connected we will reimburse you, if not, you get notta and pay your bill. That creates funds for the service on non connected and false claims, ensures vets actually goes to the VA either shortly before they get out to get the process rolling, or after to do it if their unit are being dicks and saying they have to go to JRTC when they will get out shortly after the rotation, or during the rotation...
Whats tying everything up are these false claims, IE PTSD straight out of basic, people who get out immediately trying to get everything they can without doing anything for their country, right off the bat 50%. We have people falsifying claims, tying up the system. Give incentives for people to go to another VA facility when one has 0 appts for 90 days, or even 30 days...
There are numerous ways to deal with how the VA is failing us. Every response has drawbacks and problems, Civilian doctors can be friends and boost the rating, etc... Allowing a vet to claim whatever would be disasterous, everyone claims 100%, no longer a reason to retire when you can claim 100%, my elbow feel funny...Serve one year, service connected disability and out picking up a paycheck..No way, we couldn't support being a country, and would go even deeper in debt.
Whats tying everything up are these false claims, IE PTSD straight out of basic, people who get out immediately trying to get everything they can without doing anything for their country, right off the bat 50%. We have people falsifying claims, tying up the system. Give incentives for people to go to another VA facility when one has 0 appts for 90 days, or even 30 days...
There are numerous ways to deal with how the VA is failing us. Every response has drawbacks and problems, Civilian doctors can be friends and boost the rating, etc... Allowing a vet to claim whatever would be disasterous, everyone claims 100%, no longer a reason to retire when you can claim 100%, my elbow feel funny...Serve one year, service connected disability and out picking up a paycheck..No way, we couldn't support being a country, and would go even deeper in debt.
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CW5 (Join to see)
Yup, 50% right away for sleep apnea which is 99% related to lifestyle choices and is not service related. Not that we know anything about sleep apnea in our family, eh, SPC(P) Patrick Westbrook ?
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SPC(P) Patrick Westbrook
CW5 (Join to see) - I know right...I do have sleepless nights every so often. But I'm not doing anything extremely unhealthy or wrong. Just one or two days a month that I wake up at 2am and can't fall back asleep...well also having a toddler doesn't help but that was before she was born too.
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CW5 (Join to see)
My sleep issues started back in '04 Ramadi. It comes and goes. It was getting better then I deployed to where a CRAM alarm went off more than a few time and then it relapsed. The best sleep I got in the last decade was when I last visited your place and had that air conditioned mattress.
Might have to get one but Dave Ramsey won't let me finance anything.
Might have to get one but Dave Ramsey won't let me finance anything.
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SPC(P) Patrick Westbrook
You referring to my dual temp machine? The hot cold device? I think I get 40% off of it as an employee with 12/mon Financing option. If you were interested I think I can get the ball rolling for you and you just make the payments for it every month. Or I just get you the discount and you pay for it lol
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Get people that will do their jobs correctly the first time so veterans do not have to wait for a claim. IMO they decline claims to see if you have the patients to put up with their BS and file another claim or an appeal.
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MSG (Join to see)
SGM Steve Wettstein I do not understand the disparity. I go to the VA in Palo Alto ... It's GREAT! The people are motivated, the facilities top notch. I've been to the VA at Travis AFB. I cannot provide similar praise to that establishment.
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To those that encouraged using the voucher system for all veterans, or the choice program, its not working everywhere. Some areas cant get any medical facilities to accept "choice" because of the payment problems (slow and low) and we have better luck putting as many as we can on Medicare and getting the vets seen that way. Currently the voucher system is not the way to go, at least in all areas.
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