If you receive your medical care through the VA Northern California Healthcare System (VANCHCS), you can now obtain a Non-VA Emergency Medical Card and instructional brochure from the Patient Advocate Office or Eligibility/Enrollment Dept. of the VA medical facility where you are enrolled.
Patients of any VA facility can print out their own card by downloading it here.
This card will help you avoid having to pay your emergency medical bills in the event you are taken by EMTs to the nearest non-VA trauma center. The card IDs you as a veteran and instructs EMTs, hospital, ER doctors, and radiologist as to what they must do, where to send their bills to the VA and not to you.
The brochure gives instructions to care-givers, spouses and other family members to notify the VA within 72 hours of receiving medical care. The medical emergency should be reported by calling (844) 724-7842 or visiting https://emergencycarereporting.communitycare.va.gov.
Both the card and brochure are now available by calling your patient advocates in Auburn, Chico, Fairfield, Mare Island, Martinez, McLellan, Oakland, Redding/ Yreka, Sacramento, VAMC and Yuba City.
The need for the card and instructional brochure was brought to the attention of the hospital assistant director and department managers at Sacramento VA Medical Center at Mather by a member of American Legion Sacramento Legislative Action Post 861.
The assistant director and managers were deeply moved when they listened for 20 minutes while the veteran told of his two-year battle with VA over its refusal to pay for any medical bills related to a perceived medical emergency because he didn’t follow all the step-by-step requirements. Like most veterans, he had no prior knowledge of what he or his family needed to do.
Also, the veteran learned that the VA expects veterans and family members to be expert diagnosticians. If you are taken to a non-VA trauma center when you or another person think you are in serious condition and then the ER doctor determines your extreme chills and difficulty breathing were due to a severe case of the flu, the VA will likely deny your claim because someone in their billing department decides it wasn’t a true emergency.
In this veteran’s case, he was being withdrawn from prednisone by his allergist/immunologist and rheumatologist after being on it for 11 years. Due to concern over a possible adrenal crisis, the specialist advised the veteran to take prednisone and call 911 if he became ill, which he did. The non-VA ER doctor’s diagnosis was that the veteran had flu. The VA denied his claim.
After two years of frustration and his credit, the veteran appealed to Representative Doris Matsui, who intervened, and the VA immediately paid all bills. The veteran learned from a patient advocate while the card was being developed, that she was aware of two veterans who committed suicide over going through a similar experience. It destroyed their lives.
Most certainly, there are many veterans in California and across the country, who have had similar negative experiences. The Non-VA Emergency Medical Card and brochure will help prevent this from happening to you. Please get the word out to your VSOs that these cards and brochures are now available in VANCHCS. In addition to arming yourself with the Non-VA Emergency Medical Card and instructional brochure, you need to know what medical people consider to be medical emergencies, so you don’t get taken to a non-VA trauma center for a non-life-threatening condition.
Two excellent sources are from the College of Emergency Physicians, and The Mayo Clinic. Also, a letter from your VA doctor instructing you to call 911 under specific conditions will be helpful in the event the VA refuses to pay your bills. Keep a record of everything.
IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT that you position your card in your wallet opposite your driver’s license so the police/EMT’s will see it in the event you are unconscious. They will want to ID you and will immediately look for your driver’s license. Print a copy of the card for your spouse (or others) to keep in his/her wallet/purse. Secure the brochure to your refrigerator door with a magnet.
How do I know that everything that I’ve told you is accurate and true? I am the veteran who experienced it first-hand.
Author: caLegion Contributor
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