Privatizing medical services for veterans – will it be successful?

bigrex wrote:Well, I hope one thing they do is remove predetermined limits on treatments. I used to get therapeutic massages, but VAC only approves ten 45 minute sessions per year, and required a new prescription every year. It was the only thing that reduced my pain level, even if only for a few days. But it got to the point where it just wasn't worth the hassle, because the NCCN didn't think massage was an essential treatment.

Same here with therapeutic massages. After 4 years of: paperwork problems, loss of paperwork, late/no payments I finally stopped going through VA. I have mental disabilities and cannot handle all the stress involved dealing with the VA.

It was the same with my dental treatment, between VA, Blue Cross and the Dental office it took 18 months to work it out…seriously. And it is not over yet.

Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant conducts local survey of veterans' satisfaction

Veterans Affairs Canada has scrapped a survey that asked veterans if they were happy with the department’s service, but it seems one Conservative MP didn’t get the memo.

MP Cheryl Gallant has sent taxpayer-funded brochures to households across her Eastern Ontario riding, which includes Canadian Forces Base Petawawa. It bears many similarities to Veterans Affairs’s now-defunct national client survey.

The householder, as such brochures are called, asks veterans or their families to answer 10 questions “assessing the quality of service received from Veterans Affairs Canada.”

The questions include whether respondents are satisfied with their access to Veterans Affairs staff and offices, if they are happy with the department’s services, and if applying for benefits was straightforward. It also asks if respondents usually interact with the department in person, online, or by telephone.

Gallant, who has represented the riding of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke since 2000, could not be reached for comment this week. (She has recently been under fire for suggesting Ontario’s new sex-education curriculum was drafted by a man charged with child pornography possession, and puts children at risk.)

The last national client survey was conducted in 2010. It found Second World War and Korean War veterans and their survivors were generally happy with the department’s performance. But “satisfaction levels” among modern-day veterans, including Afghan vets, had fallen from 80 per cent in 2007 to 68 per cent in 2010.

The next iteration was supposed to have been conducted in 2012-13, but the survey was dropped without explanation. In the meantime, Veterans Affairs has cut hundreds of front-line staff, outsourced a number of services, closed several offices, and shifted toward more Internet contact with veterans.

Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole, who held a roundtable with ex-soldiers in Toronto on Tuesday, said in an email that “many MPs with military bases or large veteran communities likely also gather direct feedback either with roundtable meetings or through householder response.”

But he defended the government’s decision to cut the national client survey. The minister said a study that Veterans Affairs conducts with Statistics Canada, and which compares veterans’ health and income before and after they have left the military, is a superior way of assessing the department’s performance.

The Veterans Affairs-Statistics Canada study “allows for statistically significant results that are the benchmark for public policy planning,” O’Toole said. “Even history indicated the client satisfaction survey was criticized for not being a representative sampling of feedback.”

Opposition critics have been critical of the government’s decision to axe the national client survey. But they questioned Gallant’s motives for polling veterans in her community, especially given the outrage that has greeted many of the recent changes at Veterans Affairs.

The treatment of veterans is shaping up as a ballot box question for some Canadians, with the Royal Canadian Legion publishing an open letter just this week urging Canadians to think about the issue when they go to the polls later this year.

“Good for (Gallant) for asking the questions, but I think she’s setting herself up for the next campaign,” NDP veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer said.

“It will be very, very interesting to see what she does with the information. If she just sits on it and does nothing, then that’s one thing. But if she actually writes a letter to the minister saying people in her riding said this and this, maybe something can come to fruition. But I think there’s an awful lot of politics around it.”

Liberal veterans affairs critic Frank Valeriote was more critical, suggesting Gallant “is concerned that she is losing the valued support of veterans.”

“The fact she is doing a survey is frankly meaningless,” he added. “She’s not a spokesperson for Veterans Affairs. She’s a backbencher. And the Conservatives don’t welcome the opinions of our veterans.”

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/conservative-mp-cheryl-gallant-conducts-local-survey-of-veterans-satisfaction

Well, I hope one thing they do is remove predetermined limits on treatments. I used to get therapeutic massages, but VAC only approves ten 45 minute sessions per year, and required a new prescription every year. It was the only thing that reduced my pain level, even if only for a few days. But it got to the point where it just wasn't worth the hassle, because the NCCN didn't think massage was an essential treatment.

Loggie this is why Blue Cross is taking over and changing the ''requirements'' for physio for your knee. I hope to get more info from the OVO and I will share it.

Georges I totally agree with ya and that's why I'm trying for "billing codes" on a members file for physio and daily living aids. Service provider calls NCCN and voila no money out of your pocket and the provider is getting paid.

From my talk with the OVO Blue Cross wants to be like other insurance providers for total visits and billing. They have to work out the VAC rules with VAC to be as efficient as other insurance companies.

loggie I pay up front of all for my services and them send the bills, I do have to wait some time to get my money back for vac or bleu cross, wy? you got it, to, long to mush paper and calls , service provider especial spsycologist would no longer keep me. This way I keep my services but I alsow wait for my money! The system really work good %?$&*&((##$%??

I hear what you are saying Teen but as one of these "knee patients" I can tell you the paperwork is endless. My condition was written up as "Permanent" and "will never improve". The physio is only granted up to a certain point so when that runs out the provider has to go through a bunch of hoops to try and get additional treatments authorized AND it is a pain. I just received on Monday approval for some extra treatments from 2013! Yes 2013. I had appealed to 2nd level, they, in their own words lost the paperwork and asked ME to send them all of the copies including what they had written and then 6 months after that they approved me. I am now awaiting 2014 approval.
Meanwhile my provider is NOT happy with all of the buearocratic BS and late payments, etc. FYI I paid him for 2013 a long time ago so he would not be out of pocket and have to keep the outstanding bill on the books. I just paid him for 2014 for the same reasons. But this having to now wait for something that was, for 6 years, up until 2012, annually granted in a very short time, is now a massive pain in the arse!

OK I have found out some info I'd like to share...

VAC pays Blue Cross about $600 million a year. Trying to get a breakdown of the $600 million is labourious and would be to time consuming to do.

That said the amount paid is to pay for treatment benefits, daily living aids, payroll etc. so it would be an accountants dream to break down but it would cost a pretty penny, oops, nickel to have that done.

With Blue Cross now taking over and the 44 VAC employees transferred to front line jobs within VAC Blue Cross is working on reducing the red tape.

For example lets say you have on your VAC file a knee injury. Well Blue Cross will not need a prescription from a doctor for the physio to be approved. After you get your referral from your doctor the physiotherapist will call Blue Cross and they will approve the physio as it is on the clients file he/she has a pensioned condition for a knee injury.

Next week I am going to meet the member of the OVO in charge of the file to get more info and to discuss having a yearly billing code for daily living aids so the service provider calls the NCCN with the clients K number and gets the billing code after indentifing their service provider ID info.

Actually your VIP grant was based on the regional rates AND your previous billing to VAC for VIP services.

So seeing as how it's the CM that does the assessment and you moved to a better/larger house then your CM, or an assigned CSA by your CM, does the re-evaluation.

That is one of the problems with VAC if you don't ask some (most of the CM's) do not use "initiative" when it is presented to them.

I didn't think your CM had any involvement beyond determining the need for VIP program, since the changeover, and it was Blue Cross that now set each individuals rates, based on the supplied information. I think one issue is using regional rates, instead of the rates that were actually being charged by companies.

If your CM does not want to do a VIP re-assessment and ignores your VIP questionairre then call the OVO and lodge a complaint and start an investigation.

The investigators are very good at VIP complaints.

My CM and an OT have been to my new place, but they didn't do a VIP assessment. I indicated the greater need in the questionnaire that Blue Cross sends out asking if there has been any changes to your living situation. I was bad enough that I had to ditch the landscaping company and Housekeeping company that I had been using, because their rates at the new house were too high, compared to my bursary amount, and was forced to go with private service providers. It was either that or pay over $2500 out of pocket for the year to maintain the same level of service.

wow bigrex that is just fracking wrong . maybe its just who you get on the line. I know at the time I thought the only one I could speak to about this was DVA and if it wasn't for them calling me I still wouldn't know the difference .

propat

Rex you have to call your CM for an inhome visit and re-evaluation for not only VIP but occupational therapist assessment.

Whenever you move you are entitled to a re-evaluation for your benefits. VAC benefits are not a one and done. Moving to better surroundings is not a penalty to a vet.

Propat. you were lucky. I moved from an 800 sq/ft trailer, into a 3200 sq/ft house, with a driveway and yard around 4 times larger, but after informing Blue Cross of the changes, they actually reduced my bursary by around $300 dollars.

One thing to remember if the grant provided is not enough and you have the receipts and quotes from 2 other cleaning companies you can ask your CM to re-evaluate your VIP to make sure you are getting the proper amount.