"Leave 'Em' Laughing"
My continuing saga with the Veteran's Administration took a decisive turn yesterday.
About two or so, I saw a call coming in from my Patient Advocate office...quickly catching you newer Cyrsti's Condo visitors up-I am a transgender veteran and I am under a co-pay medical program with the much maligned VA. They are mandated to provide HRT care for me. Sounds simple, right?
For the most part it has been-except-in typical bureaucratic fashion, I got stuck in a classic "Catch 22" (A requirement that cannot be met until a prerequisite requirement is met, however, the prerequisite cannot be obtained until the original requirement is met.) I was approved to be prescribed the HRT meds through the VA pharmacy but no one would prescribe them. I fought for approximately six to eight months to get approval for them (VA) to pay for an outside endocrinologist to approve my meds. Fast forward two years later and all of the sudden it was happening again!
My advice to any or all of you who may be facing a similar situation-be a persistent bitch. I called three separate advocates nine times in a week and finally got a real answer, presented to me in a simple fashion I could understand. For once, the guy who called me was interested in not just using me as a ping pong ball and bouncing me to another person. He told me just to get approval from my primary VA Doc and all was good. Wow.
Perhaps the second best point came when I was getting ready to hang up and I said "Thanks Dave". He said, "You're welcome, but the name is Jason." I said sorry, but that's fine, I'm not a "Mister" either.
About two or so, I saw a call coming in from my Patient Advocate office...quickly catching you newer Cyrsti's Condo visitors up-I am a transgender veteran and I am under a co-pay medical program with the much maligned VA. They are mandated to provide HRT care for me. Sounds simple, right?
For the most part it has been-except-in typical bureaucratic fashion, I got stuck in a classic "Catch 22" (A requirement that cannot be met until a prerequisite requirement is met, however, the prerequisite cannot be obtained until the original requirement is met.) I was approved to be prescribed the HRT meds through the VA pharmacy but no one would prescribe them. I fought for approximately six to eight months to get approval for them (VA) to pay for an outside endocrinologist to approve my meds. Fast forward two years later and all of the sudden it was happening again!
My advice to any or all of you who may be facing a similar situation-be a persistent bitch. I called three separate advocates nine times in a week and finally got a real answer, presented to me in a simple fashion I could understand. For once, the guy who called me was interested in not just using me as a ping pong ball and bouncing me to another person. He told me just to get approval from my primary VA Doc and all was good. Wow.
Perhaps the second best point came when I was getting ready to hang up and I said "Thanks Dave". He said, "You're welcome, but the name is Jason." I said sorry, but that's fine, I'm not a "Mister" either.
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