A Nurses Perspective 

My experience as a medical assistant seeking authorization for treatment of veterans with cancer was incredibly frustrating. 
We had the ability to treat them, in office, so that they wouldn't have any issues. Yet I would get booted around when I called for the authorization, to one automated phone to the next, and hung up on. When I did get to someone, they would say that wasn't their department and they transferred me again.
I went through this with every Veteran I can think of we had, but it was very frustrating getting the run around for those needing treatment.
The bottom line is that treatment could be pretty urgent; from them having imminent death and metastasis if it wasn't dealt with, to simple disfigurement if it wasn't handled in a reasonable period of time. And yet things were inefficiently delayed over and over again.

One of the more irritating elements is when they said they wouldn't cover US doing the treatments, they'd only cover the treatments by their doctors in San Francisco, which was horrible, because a lot of these men were Korean and WW2 Veterans who were handicapped, elderly, and had conditions that made it very difficult, if not dangerous, for them to travel six hours on a government bus. Also, the cost of paying for them to go all that distance and putting them up for the night, or a few nights, was probably more than the entire treatment we would have been if done locally. Frustrating and a waste of time and money.

The WORST part was that they kept denying patients, and sending me in loops for months. There are patients I tried helping nearly every day to contact the VA to get them approved for treatment. And it still took months, to get the approvals. Right around then is when that story broke about the VA simply leaving Veterans to die; and I became obsessed with getting my patients help.

At any rate, I tried and tried, and spent hours on the phone until I finally got to some one upper level, and someone with a soul, who gave me their extension and said they would approve anyone I asked for treatment for that specific issue. Whoever they were did stick to their word, but they were the ONLY person in the VA who I dealt with who seemed to give a damn about getting treatment for these men and women. 

I truly believe that at least a few of these people would have died if I had not spent all this time being a squeaky wheel. There are between ten and twelve thousand Veterans who fit this profile who I know of that without outreach by the VA will probably die from their cancers.

While I respect the VA immensely, there is 0% reason that they should be denying treatment for CANCER for their patients. Especially since the type of cancer we dealt with was one that can be increased by the setting one is put in; which means they may directly be attributed to years of service. 

Anyway, this is what happened, to the best of my memory. As far as I know, we didn't lose a single VA patient due to lack of treatment. This is one of my prouder accomplishments in the medical field. 

I hope this helps you in your cause, please keep this as anonymous as possible as I don't want to accidentally violate HIPAA laws and put my license in danger. 

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