VA Bill

[hurleyjd]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sanders-p ... nance.html

Any thoughts. care cost money who has to pay it we do and should. It is a mess and it will take time to straighten it out.

 

[Jogeephus]

Gov't workers working on government workers. I've always thought this would lead to disaster. Apart from the surgical units and major hospital units, shut down the VA and give them cards so they can use private health care. Just this week a veteran sat for 3 hours in the lobby of a VA unit only to learn there was no one there and it was closed for some reason. I can only assume the person who was trained and certified to lock the door had called in sick and there was no one there with enough training and authority to lock the door and put the closed sign up.

 

[hurleyjd]

Gov't workers working on government workers. I've always thought this would lead to disaster. Apart from the surgical units and major hospital units, shut down the VA and give them cards so they can use private health care. Just this week a veteran sat for 3 hours in the lobby of a VA unit only to learn there was no one there and it was closed for some reason. I can only assume the person who was trained and certified to lock the door had called in sick and there was no one there with enough training and authority to lock the door and put the closed sign up.

Could the VA hospitals be contracted out to a private management group to run, A group that has experience in running a hospital. I think that the bill that is hung up has the medical cards such as we have for medicare in it to be used to access care in the veterans area.

 

[TexasBred]

Gov't workers working on government workers. I've always thought this would lead to disaster. Apart from the surgical units and major hospital units, shut down the VA and give them cards so they can use private health care. Just this week a veteran sat for 3 hours in the lobby of a VA unit only to learn there was no one there and it was closed for some reason. I can only assume the person who was trained and certified to lock the door had called in sick and there was no one there with enough training and authority to lock the door and put the closed sign up.

Could the VA hospitals be contracted out to a private management group to run, A group that has experience in running a hospital. I think that the bill that is hung up has the medical cards such as we have for medicare in it to be used to access care in the veterans area.

NO reason I wouldn't work. Treat them just like any other patient, but file for pmt. with the feds. Designate VA Hospital budget for payment of patient claims. I see no reason to segregate them. Mix them in with the others.

 

[Jogeephus]

The best thing that could happen for the veterans is to allow them to go to other hospitals where the facilities are not filled with career government employees who care more about their time off than the patient. This would work for the majority of the people but I think we still need special hospitals to deal with some of the traumatic wounds most hospitals rarely see. I think patients who require this specialized care should be kept in the military and continue to draw their pay and housing allowance until they are fit enough to be discharged and at this time any future care could be given at the hospital of their choice. I know several people who have to drive several hours for care when they could get the same if not better care locally. My son was supposed to have his knee operated on but the surgeon retired and no one ever bothered to take his case load so he hobbled around for months in a bureaucratic vacuum. I went out myself to talk to these idiots and they blew smoke up my azz but never did anything. Finally a call to a senator got things rolling. This would never happen in a privately run hospital and it should never happen in any hospital.

 

[Bez__]

I admit I did not read the link

However I must tell you that the Albuqurque VA hospital did me some mighty fine work when I was admitted there last year.

They billed my government and we paid up - but the care and the service was astounding - right from being admitted - carried in and plunked down in a wheel chair by my fellow US pilots to being assisted out the door by a Korean War vet volunteer about 48 hours later.

Awesome folks and I could only wish Canuck hospitals were as good.

You guys have it far better than you know - up here people actually do die waiting for operations - sometimes up to more than one or two years. Elective surguries? Like a knee replacement - depending upon where you live can easily go beyond a year waiting time.

Eight to twelve hours (and more in some areas) waiting in an emergency room for any non-life threatening injury is the norm.

Even an MRI in this location can take up to six months to get - and you can be bumped in a heart beat - I paid the cash and went south of the border for mine.

That "free" health care up here is not all it is cracked up to be - yours is still far better in my opinion.

Best to all

Bez__