HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

New to the Forum and PC

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
1 2
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 1/5/2016 3:18 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks manning3 for the additional info. I was at the VA and informed by them that my doctor no longer take Choice for payment. The next nearest provider for me is Anchorage Alaska. They did my original physical was done there and they set up the appointments and pay the mileage. If that does not work near stop will be Seattle. So far they have been pretty good. They just do minor things and paper work. Every thing else is out sourced. On Tuesday I go in for an eye exam. I am on the AS program as I started out as a Gleason 6 and my last biopsies came back as all negative. Thanks for the come back and good luck with your treatment.
Posted 1/5/2016 8:50 PM (GMT 0)
Mannings3:
You said:
>>I am 100% disabled by the VA so a majority of my treatment must at least go through them but I also have Medicare and Gap insurance so I have options.>>

I could be wrong, but I believe that even though you use the VA, you should also be able to go anywhere that accepts your Medicare and gap insurance even if they don't take the VA Choice program. Though you'd need to carefully consider whatever co-pays or out-of-pocket maximums you might be on the hook for depending on what your gap plan covers. I get most of my medical care -- including all of my PCa care -- through a university medical center on my BC/BS Medicare Advantage plan. I am also enrolled with the VA - Agent Orange with a partial disability for PCa residuals. I have an annual visit with a VA primary care doc and get her referral for vision and hearing exams at the VA.

It just happens that I had my annual visit with my VA primary care doc yesterday and updated her on my medical treatment from outside the VA system. I updated her on my returned, but not yet high, PSA and told her that if it continues to rise, I'd probably look for a consult at Dana Farber in Boston. She agreed that was a good idea. She said she could also get me a consult with a VA oncologist if I wanted it, but she in no way discouraged me from seeking treatment outside the VA system using my Medicare Advantage insurance.
Posted 1/5/2016 9:45 PM (GMT 0)
Bohemond - Thank you for your response, the long and short of it is that I keep the VA up to date on my private medical care and there by the private care (labs, test, diagnoses) becomes part of my VA medical records.

My disability began in 1972 and after a few visits with the VA I had a very bad taste about them. I used my employer insurance instead of them until 2010 when I began thinking of retirement. What I have found is that the new VA with younger staff is vastly different from my original impression, albeit this may be regional. The one thing I want is that my outside care for VA related disabilities is documented in my VA records.
Posted 1/6/2016 1:42 AM (GMT 0)
Mannings3 --
I agree that my experience with the VA has been excellent. Maybe we here in Boston are better off than in some other VA service areas, but I have no complaints. Even though I have a primary care doctor at UMass Medical Center, when I first met with my VA doctor she asked if I'd ever had an ultrasound to check for aortic aneurysm, which I hadn't. She thought it was worth doing and set up the appointment at the VA. Fortunately the results were negative, but I was impressed that she recommended something that none of my many other doctors had never recommended. I've had eye tests and free eyeglasses; a hearing test that confirmed that my basic hearing is still ok, and also confirmed (what I already knew) that there isn't much to do about my tinnitus. But I have an old high-school buddy who is also a Vietnam vet, who is now on his second set of VA hearing aids that are as good as any that would cost a couple of thousand each if he'd had to buy them.

My dilemma is that my (non-VA) primary care doctor is older than I am and will retire one of these days. I really like my VA doc and would gladly have her as my one and only primary care doctor at some point in the future, but then I wonder if she moved on, would I then be stuck with someone I don't like, whereas, outside the VA I can have some control over who I choose as my doctor.
Posted 1/6/2016 5:25 PM (GMT 0)
Bohemond--
I live in Nokomis, FL, 20 miles south of Sarasota on the Gulf coast. My VA Hospital is Bay Pines in St. Petersburg. As with your VA it is affiliated with several Florida University's and many of the doctors have a private practice in the Tampa Bay area.
My local VA is a clinic where my primary care VA doctor is assigned. There are 4 other primary care doctors in the clinic and we can chose if we have an issue. My PC is about my age and all he does is prescribe meds and gives me my lab results. I take those to my non-VA PC for review (this is a throw back to the old VA) he's the one who diagnosed my high PSA and told me to get with a Urologist.
If you don't already start using the My Healthy Vet website. The site has whats called a Blue Button that give you access to many for your medical records. This is where I found out my PSA was over 4 since 2010 and never brought to my attention. It also allows you to place comments in you record and the VA will respond {be nice and accurate it's permanent). I also use this to document my private care in my VA record. It seems to work for me.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
12