The scandal of a secret waiting list for the Phoenix Veteran’s Hospital continues to make news. It is also revealing that the issues in the military medical system are not just limited to the Phoenix Arizona area, or Veteran’s Affairs, every aspect of the military medical system including care of Active Duty, Retirees and Veterans, is affected. As a former military spouse and former employee of TRICARE, I have seen, first-hand, the issues plaguing not just our Veterans, but service members and their families.
The promise of life long free/affordable health care is a major draw for many young people to join the military. They are not only promised the best health care, but that it will be easily accessible. TRICARE is best explained as the military’s version of health insurance. It covers services performed by military and civilian doctors. The service members don’t seem to realize that once they sign a military contract, the military completely owns them, right down to their healthcare. Family members can be spared from this horror, but not always. While it does specify this information in the TRICARE paperwork, how many of us really read or pay attention to what we are signing. While participating in TRICARE if you are assigned to a doctor or hospital on base (also known as a Military Treatment Facility or MTF) you are subject to them approving who you will see and what treatments you receive. You can plead with the MTF and, as I have often seen, the base commander to have your care released to a civilian, but ultimately it is up to the base and commander to approve. By ignoring these rules, you are subject to paying your medical expenses out of pocket 100%.
The best way to avoid this is by having your own health insurance which will then become primary to TRICARE. People may think “how bad can it be?” Here are some examples: While being seen at a military treatment facility myself, I was diagnosed by the doctor upon him walking in to the room. He did not ask of my symptoms nor examine me, just read a chart and diagnosed with a simple stomach virus, when in actuality I was suffering from acute coccidioidomycosis. Easy enough mistake, it happens all the time, but the examples get worse. While working for a contractor holding the TRICARE contract, I received many phone calls from wives who were pleading with me to have their care transferred to a civilian for their pregnancies. Several claimed that due to either poor care or of care being inaccessible, they suffered miscarriages. A service member injured their shoulder on duty. Being a good soldier, they reported the injury immediately and was pulled off duty pending recommendations from a doctor.
The soldier was serving in the Army National Guard and was referred to a nearby Air Force Base for treatment. The soldier made several attempts to contact the base for an appointment, never to receive a call back. After nearly 6 months, they were finally seen only to discover they were suffering from a torn labrum, an injury often requiring surgery and months of physical therapy to rehabilitate from the injury. The orthopedic doctor suggested doing physical therapy at home and sent the soldier on their way with several heavy duty pain killers and some odd exercises to “strengthen the shoulder.” After several more months with virtually no relief, the soldier asked to go back to see the doctor. Again it took several attempts at calling to get an appointment with the doctor. There was a new orthopedic doctor assigned to the base. This doctor prescribed anti-inflammatory medication and offered better suggestions for physical therapy but strongly recommended surgery. The doctors at this particular base would often ask to be seen by a civilian doctor nearby rather than see the orthopedic doctors on base due to several issues with misdiagnosis or injuries as a result of the delay of care. The soldier in question was not forced to do the surgery and was released to full duty. Sadly upon being released from care, they were then discharged from the military, siting that they did not properly follow procedures and recommendations from the doctor and for mishandling their medical files, something that the service members cannot alter due to them being stored electronically on their identification cards.
This service member fought to get an honorable discharge which was granted. One particular service member had called about a transfer between states and being assigned to another military doctor. This service member asked to be released to civilian care. I explained that as a contractor, we were subject to following the rules and regulations of the military and are not authorized to release their care or change any doctors without approval from the military. Upon reviewing records, this service member had a simple routine surgery but due to a mistake by the doctors and their botched attempt at trying to cover it and several more attempts to fix it, the service member was wheel-chair bound with a colostomy bag at the young age of 23. They were being transferred from the facility where the surgery had been performed. This request was made by the service member to move closer to family after being medically retired due to the mishap during the initially surgery. Unfortunately the doctor who had made the error was also practicing at the same facility and was assigned to the service member again. The only way around this was to move to a different location. I no longer work for the military medical system. The contract was taken from my company and granted to another company with far inferior service and for much more money.
Research shows that the owners of the company granted the contract had donated to President Barrack Obama’s election campaign, they are also the same company backing and promoting “Obama Care” and set up the now infamous websites that had several problems and cost American tax payers billions of dollars to fix. The former company was forced to lay off all but a mere skeleton crew of their employees. In an attempt to stay afloat and bring back many employees, they bid on several more contracts, including one for the Veterans Administration. The VA was reporting that their hospitals and care givers were overloaded due to the large number of Veteran’s being eligible for care. While not all Veterans are eligible for TRICARE, as they have to remain active or retire from the military for this care, ALL Veterans are eligible for VA care, but only through the VA hospital. The VA was going to start referring to civilian providers to lower the wait time for care. However they contract was delayed and in the meantime the news of several patients dying while awaiting care, hit the news. A former service member in the Phoenix AZ area recently stated they had requested a routine physical in January.
The initial phone call told it would be 3 weeks, then another call stated it would be 6-8 weeks, a third call stated it would not be until June before there was an opening. VA offices that register eligible veterans for care are no better. Since many former service members are not retirees, but had joined the military for college benefits and to see the world, they are, more often than not, young enough to start a new career. Trying to get to an office to even register for their benefits proves difficult as many offices are open very limited hours. In the Phoenix suburb of Anthem, Arizona, where the issues were first noted, their VA offices will all but assault and harass veterans to register with them in an effort to keep their doors open. However they are not available early mornings, late afternoons or weekends, which are hours that would accommodate the need for that specific area. As you can see, the issues are not limited to the VA nor just one state, these issues are happening everywhere. It also appears that, while government officials act appalled, they are well aware of the issues plaguing the US Military and VA healthcare systems. In fact, they are contributing to it by taking donations from the very people ignoring our service members.
It’s high time that American’s stand up to these political bullies and force them to do the right thing for the very people who give them their freedoms and protect their jobs.
