Veteran: 2014 law hasn’t cured health care access problems

DAWSON — Frustrated that he, along with other veterans receiving treatment from Veterans Administration health facilities, is getting buried under layers of red tape as he seeks treatment related to exposure to the Agent Orange defoliant in Vietnam, Neil Thompson offers a lament that could be the rallying cry for a growing number of the men and women who fought for their country.

“People just don’t understand how veterans have to fight and fight just to get health care that has been promised them for their service,” said Thompson, a Canadian citizen who served as a medic and was wounded outside Saigon at Long Bin in Vietnam. “More than anything, it’s mentally exhausting.

“Fighting the VA for health benefits is harder in some ways than it was fighting in Vietnam.”

Thompson, whose diabetes has been linked to Agent Orange exposure, is frustrated at the lack of communication between the Veterans Administration and local health care providers since the passage of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, which was signed into law by President Obama on Aug. 7.

That piece of legislation allows eligible veterans to receive health care from providers in their communities if the VA is unable to schedule a necessary appointment for the veteran within 30 days or if the veteran lives more than 40 miles from a VA facility.

For Thompson, who has been seeing a local endocrinologist for the past five years since his diabetes was diagnosed, that meant receiving his Veterans Choice Card, which is an element of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, covered him for local treatment. Or so he thought.

First confirming that his local doctor, one of “five or six specialists” he was seeing, was an approved health care provider under the new law, Thompson made an appointment in March. After being seen by the endocrinologist, Thompson was told that his treatment was not covered and that he would have to file under his wife Gloria’s insurance. That meant he had to go out-of-pocket for the treatment.

“I told them that I’d gotten the appointment approved with the VA and that my treatment was covered under the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act,” Thompson said. “My doctor’s office told me they were not accepting coverage under that law. I’ve since talked with them on several occasions, and they basically told me that the doctors at their facility had to go before their board of directors before treatment would be covered under the new law.

“They said until that happens, they will not accept VA coverage. Trying to get an understanding of all this is like calling the IRS. Every time I call, I get a different answer. It’s obvious there’s been no communication between my doctor’s office and the VA.”

When contacted by The Albany Herald about coverage under the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, a representative of the health care group for which Thompson’s endocrinologist works said the group could not talk about specific patients. Asked about refusing coverage under the new law, the representative said, “We do accept coverage from the VA (under the law). You should tell the person you’re talking to to contact us if he has questions.”

Thompson said he was surprised by the response.

“The folks at my doctor’s office (Thompson did not want to reveal the physician’s name) treated the new VA coverage like it was insurance that they wouldn’t accept,” he said. “They told me I needed to find another provider and only accepted my wife’s insurance, which means I’ll have to pay a substantial deductible if I continue to get treatment.

“I talked yesterday with a patient’s advocate at the VA, and she told me if I filed a claim on any kind of insurance, the VA would pay nothing for treatment. Now I know a lot of veterans don’t have any kind of insurance other than their VA benefits, and that is why this concerns me so much. If they go to health care providers who say they don’t accept coverage under the new law, what are they going to do?”

Messages left with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs were not returned.

Thompson was not an American citizen when he joined the U.S. Army in 1961. He went with an American friend, who had been drafted, to a recruitment station in Plattsburg, N.Y., and the recruiter talked him into joining as well.

“He told me how good I’d look in the uniform,” Thompson says wistfully. “I was 19. I bought his line.”

The new recruit trained as a medic in San Antonio, Texas, and was initially assigned to Fort Hood, also in Texas. He applied for transfer to Europe and was sent to the 31st Surgical Hospital in Germany. He already spoke English and French, and within six months he’d mastered the German language. He was on track to be reassigned to Belgium as an interpreter when orders came to report to Fort Benning for jungle training.

He was assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade and shipped to Vietnam. He was injured by “friendly fire” shortly after arriving at Long Bin when a 105 Howitzer shell exploded not four feet from where he’d sought cover in a rice paddy. He was thrown 30 feet in the air and landed on a hornet’s nest. He was injured by shrapnel from the shell but, amazingly, not badly enough to disable him.

“Here’s some irony,” Thompson said. “To qualify for a Purple Heart, your injury must be written up by a medic. I was the medic. I didn’t do the paperwork on myself because my commanding officer was concerned about the friendly fire, so I didn’t get a Purple Heart. That would have benefited me today, because Purple Heart recipients get more complete health care treatment.”

Thompson has since been treated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and for health issues that the VA declared are related to Agent Orange exposure. He’s been treated for cancer, which he’s beaten, and the diabetes that is a current major concern.

“I’ll give you a prime example of the kind of treatment veterans often get at VA facilities,” Thompson said. “I had an infection in my foot, and when treatment wasn’t administered quickly enough, a red line started running up my leg. I called the VA hospital in Dublin and they told me they would be able to make an appointment for me in 30 to 45 days. I went to Phoebe Northwest, was admitted and treated, and was out of there in 15 minutes.

“If I’d waited 30-45 days … well, I can tell you I probably wouldn’t be sitting here with all of my limbs.”

Thompson says he understands the difficulties Veterans Administration health care providers experience with the growing number of aging veterans seeking treatment. But he’s frustrated at the agency’s priorities.

“(The VA) spends millions and millions of dollars hosting fancy parties for administrators and big-wigs,” he said. “But when it comes to veterans’ care, there are always cutbacks. They give every kind of excuse in the world. Their personnel have been well-trained in evading answers.

“There seems to be a total lack of responsibility in caring for the men and women who defended this country.”