Help From VA:

Any veterans here who have opted for the VA to manage their health care? If so, how did it work out for your cpap and supplies?

In addition to the shared experiences and advice in this forum from those who receive or received their health care and xPAP therapy for OSA form VA, apneasupport.com's forum has a long standing thread on VA benefits, health care, etc. for military personnel and their dependents.

momsworry, i think you need to shop for a more people friendly avatar jmho. i should know, my Cheyenne dog soldier pic kinda freaked out some folks. lol, something you don't wish to gaze upon before tuning in...............it is because of the VA system that i am here. they will provide you with what you need, beginning with a sleep study to see if you meet their criteria for therapy . then it is up to you to become involved with your treatment & stay in touch with your RT. i will say coming here is a good step, although i see you have been a member of this site since 06....Hhmmmmm

I rely on the VA for as much of my health care as I can. All of my CPAP supplies come through the VA. I complained to my PCP about my tiredness, and she suggested I go in for a sleep study. Took 6 months but I left the VA Hospital after my sleep study with my equipment. They billed my insurance for it but accepted what my ins paid.....no copay for me. When I need a new mask or hose, I just call the RT dept and they send it out. Haven't seen that they billed my ins for any of them. They will send me mask or hose pretty much anytime I call and ask, although they request that you try to get at least 6 months out of a mask.

I think the different VAs are not consistent in what they provide. It took me forever to get a sleep study (outside source) and then I was given a Pro2 and Swift mask. I've heard of others who have gotten an automatic with AFlex. I asked about this and was told that this VA didn't believe in automatic machines. They do NO followup unless you ask. I don't think you ever get a followup sleep study, and nobody reads your data card. When I found this out I bought the software and reader and tweaked the settings myself. Luckily the provided machine was data capable. I was able to bring my AHI down from the teens to around 1.5. I was titrated at 7 and ended up at 10.5. I read the card every day to make sure I'm doing the best I can. They ARE very nice when I drop by and I get a new mask and other supplies whenever I need them.

Sam

deerslayer wrote:momsworry, i think you need to shop for a more people friendly avatar jmho. i should know, my Cheyenne dog soldier pic kinda freaked out some folks. lol, something you don't wish to gaze upon before tuning in...............it is because of the VA system that i am here. they will provide you with what you need, beginning with a sleep study to see if you meet their criteria for therapy . then it is up to you to become involved with your treatment & stay in touch with your RT. i will say coming here is a good step, although i see you have been a member of this site since 06....Hhmmmmm

Yeah, I've been on the hose since December of 2006 and have been 100% compliant. I'm just getting into this VA health care thing and was wondering if my supplies in the future could be procured through the VA and was curious as to others experiences with the VA with this treatment.

I thought all the VA used were auto's. Provide the VA a copy of your PSG & script. Make sure the script is exactly as you want it. There is a long wait if you need a PSG. My VA only has one sleep tech and most vets don't want a sleep over so they just don't show.

They are a little slow off the line and all of their sleep docs & RT's are still in training. The RT's are re-trained from pulmonary (in house) type settings in active OJT. The VA outsources the DME services, mine is to Nutmeg Respiratory a division of Rotech. I am waiting 2 months now for a mask that is not one of the ones most DME's push but that is another long story.

The bottom line is if you can take care of your own therapy, it's not a bad deal cuz they certainly will NOT bother you. So you will need the software and the reader. Then stay on top of your supplies.

The VA's Primary Care has come a long way thru the years, their specialty clinics have quite the mile to go if they want to play catch up. The specialty clinics charge $50 per visit (more than a Co-Pay) - Pri-Care is $15. Sleep is a specialty. The VA's prescription medicine program is top shelf with a 24/7 toll-free phone ordering system - the meds are mailed to your door, $8/30 day supply.

fwiw - met one sleep doc I will not be caught in the same room with again. She is where arrogance and clueless merge in the learning curve.

HTH

Yeah, I've been on the hose since December of 2006 and have been 100% compliant. I'm just getting into this VA health care thing and was wondering if my supplies in the future could be procured through the VA and was curious as to others experiences with the VA with this treatment.

momsworry , if you have already filled out your means test and have a primary , you should have no problem requesting a sleep study or for that matter cpap equipment.be advised get in line early, right now the system is overloaded at many facilities. also like Gumby said ,you may even have to deal with the flip wilson character Geraldine ...in the end it's worth it, so don't tary brother ! tim

I have to admit that followup was non existent. My sleep study was a split night, and I didn't get much if any sleep on the mask. They sent me home the next morning with the Pro 2 and UMFF (at my request), and had the machine set at 8. Right away I got the software and card reader and found out that my pressure was to low, so I started self titrating. I has settled on a pressure of 11, when I received a call from my PCP and was told that since they weren't able to titrate me properly during my initial sleep study I needed to either get ahold of the VA hospital RT dept and make arrangements for an overnight with an auto, or get ahold of the sleep lab and schedule an overnite titration study in the lab. I discussed with her that I had already performed my own titration, and she suggested that I should contact the RT dept and discuss it with them. When I contacted them, the response that I got was nothing but positive. The RT asked a few questions and felt that I had learned how to properly manage my OSA and that there was nothing they needed to change. They did ask that I keep in touch and let them know if I had any problems. They then contacted the PCP and informed her that she needed to change my prescription to indicate that I could continue to self titrate. When I do call for new masks or other supplies, the RT always comments on my prescription and I have to inform them how I am self titrating without an auto, but they always seem happy with my explanation. I have no idea if the actual sleep doctor, who I only saw once about 3 months before my sleep study, has any idea that I am doing it all myself or not. My local VA uses their prosthetics department in the hospital to provide DME for me.

I've been with the Baltimore VA since the mid-90's, and I have had a fit of a time getting proper and prompt care for anything short of an ER visit. For most things, that is. They tended to downplay obvious ailments, stalled me for years on addressing persistent intense pain, misprescribed my first xPAP machine and nasal mask when I should have had a BIPAP and FF mask, and forced me to "adapt to the CPAP." Obviously that didn't work. They've also stalled me on other problems for years, and I've finally started hitting upper floors and filing complaints.

As a note: The VA (someone there) found me on this forum and I paid a dear price for telling about their errors and stalling. They do not like their dirt to be written about, as I can well attest.

Some of my first posts on the board are below.

Good luck...


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Nodzy

Nodzy wrote:As a note: The VA (someone there) found me on this forum and I paid a dear price for telling about their errors and stalling. They do not like their dirt to be written about, as I can well attest.

How so - what can they do? How could they punish YOU for telling the truth?

Nodzy, i'm sure you have this link but just in case https://www.myhealth.va.gov/mhv-portal- ... el=mhvHome like Gumby said , we do have rights !

Guest wrote: How so - what can they do? How could they punish YOU for telling the truth?

Simple, they can intentionally delay, offset, prescribe "wrong" meds etc. One doc in particular thrice displayed atrocious and unprofessional attitude directly to me in exam, concerning my revalations on here, and later to him, about 5-years of misprescribed and intolerable xPAP therapy. He then scoffed at me for closely monitoring my blood pressure/pulse rate and oxygenation levels with my self-purchased tools. Models also used by medical professionals.

Of course, he also prescribed two meds that were inappropriate and dangerous for me due to preexisting conditions, after grudingly providing a revised 'scrip for the proper xPAP and a FF mask for me. Yes, a patient can suffer needlessly when a care provider gets miffed. One med caused fast-escalating excruciating pains, and the other could have caused severe damage to my liver and kidneys - both were clearly contraindicated in my medical history.

Generally, the VA does a fantastic job considering the huge volume of patients they provide care for. But, like any other large organization they have a few power-mad and/or 'tude-driven employees. As with other large care providers, mistakes and outright bad assessment calls at the VA are fact, as well.

Nodzy

Not wanting to let this VA thread die & since it is titled help from VA ,i wanted some advice here. ...last night at our local American Legion meeting there was a new member who is retired military, plus his father,still living is a medal of honor winner from wwII. this guy is very bitter of the way the VA has charged him for care and feels he is being charged unfairly. does anyone know where he might have some advocate recourse he might pursue ? many thanks in advance. and thanks to all that have served *

deerslayer wrote:Not wanting to let this VA thread die & since it is titled help from VA ,i wanted some advice here. ...last night at our local American Legion meeting there was a new member who is retired military, plus his father,still living is a medal of honor winner from wwII. this guy is very bitter of the way the VA has charged him for care and feels he is being charged unfairly. does anyone know where he might have some advocate recourse he might pursue ? many thanks in advance. and thanks to all that have served *

I cannot say that all have them, but the VA hospital I get services from has a "patient advocacy" office. I have not really had any problems with my VA care but I have discussed a couple of issues with them. They are there to try to resolve patient complaints. If they cant resolve it I am sure that you should be able to "go up the chain of command".