The VAHCS is a great resource for veterans with apnea disorders. However, there are a number of issues that veteran's have to learn to negotiate. Some are based in national policies, but most deal with the policies of the local hospitals.
Under this topic, please start off by stating which specific hospital you are getting your treatment from. This can help all of us identify which policies are shared by multiple hospitals, and which policies are locally enforced.
Veteran Administrative Policies include, but are not limited to:
- What to commonly expect regarding ethical service
- Types of corruption to expect within the VA HCS and how to navigate through it
- Registering to be a patient with the VA HCS
- Seeing a Primary Care Physician (PCP) to schedule a sleep study
- Negotiating neglected care and ensuring due process
- Purpose of Patient Advocate
- Reporting Waste, Fraud, and Abuse with Attorney General
- Setting up an appointment for a sleep study
- What to expect during a sleep study
- Abuse to potentially expect during a sleeps study
- Based on sleep study experience, how to select choice of CPAP or BiPAP equipment
- How to report Physician and Technician Abuse without incurring Retribution
- Scheduling policies for follow on visits, and ensuring timely response
- Who and Where are xPAP equipment issued
- Policies for care and maintenance of xPAP equipment
- MyAir Resmed use and compliance policies
- Methods of dealing with unanticipated use problems
- Indicators of Sleep Study technician incompetence
- Unannounced Remote Manipulation of xPAP equipment
- Resources for getting answers when the Sleep Study technician demonstrates incompetence
- Policies involving experimentation without patient knowing consent
- What to expect at follow on Sleep Study Physician visits
- What to expect at follow on PCP visits
- ... and other administrative policies that are specific to Veteran's Administration Health Care System patients