Praise, concerns voiced about Pennsylvania VA

As American Legion Department of Pennsylvania commander Dennis Haas has visited multiple Department of Veterans Affairs facilities across his state, he's formed a very blunt opinion of the health-care system.

“I want to tell you right now I was very, very impressed with every bit of health care that was given out by (VA) all the way around,” Haas said March 16 at the Legion’s town hall meeting at Bustleton Memorial Post 810 in Philadelphia. “I deal myself with the Altoona medical center and DuBois (community-based outpatient clinic). I’ve never had one bit of problem with VA. Maybe I’m an exception. The medical staff is the best I’ve ever seen, and I’m damn glad we have a VA health-care system to use.”

Haas was one of several veterans who shared their views during a very civil back-and-forth session at Post 810. More than two dozen veterans attended the meeting, as did state and national Legion staff, and employees of both the Veterans Benefits Administration and Veterans Health Administration.

“We want to make sure that the veterans of Pennsylvania are well-served,” said Louis Celli, director of the Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Division. “We want to make sure that you’re getting the health care that you’ve earned. We want to make sure that your benefits are getting process in the manner in which you would expect they’d get processed.

“What we’re not looking for is scandal. There’s enough scandal within the VA to go around. We just want to make sure that we’re ahead of it. There have been some pockets where there have been problems, and we want to make sure we’re ahead of that so we’re not reading about it.”

During the meeting, one veteran expressed concern with scheduling. He works full-time and doesn’t get off work until 4 p.m. He had to cancel an MRI appointment with a specialist because the VA scheduling office closed at 3:30 p.m. “If it’s happening to me, it’s happening to younger vets who are working as well,” he said. “The system needs to be user-friendly and it’s not.”

Another veteran said he was working full time prior to retiring this year and had attempted to enroll into the VA health-care system but was told he wasn’t eligible for VA care because of what he earned the previous year – even though his income was greatly reduced after retirement. He said he was told he needed to either wait a year or apply for a hardship.

Another veteran said he received training at Camp Lejeune and wants to find out if any of his conditions are related to contaminated water there. “When I go to the VA, they kind of brush that aside.”

Pennsylvania Department Service Officer and service-connected veteran Bruce Foster praised VA’s My HealtheVet, VA’s online personal health record, calling it “one of the greatest things ever created to support veterans. Anybody who doesn’t use it needs to use it.”

Foster also praised VA medical care as “the best that we could ever ask for.” As a service officer, he said he’s also trying to do his part by filing fully developed claims for veterans “to make sure veterans get benefits as fast as they can.”

As veterans asked questions, VA staff offered to meet with them following the meeting to take their names and follow up on their issues. VA staff also gave an overview of its Choice Card program during the meeting. In closing the meeting, Verna Jones, executive director of the Legion's Washington office, reinforced the fact the Legion wants to help reform the VA, rather than dissolving the health-care system and sending veterans into the private sector.

“Veterans chose to go into the military to defend this country,” Jones said. “They deserve the best health-care system that they can possibly have, and The American Legion believes that health-care system is the VA health-care system. We’re working with VA ... to make sure that we’re able to give veterans what they need.”

Jones stressed the forum was to hear both positive and negative viewpooints about VA services. “This is the forum for you to open that up and for us to all work together as a team to try to make the benefits that you deserve so much better for you,” she said. “There are places where there is room for improvement. And there are areas where the VA does things quite well.”