OREGON OBSERVATIONS 11 APRIL 2024

Email I sent to my elected officials regarding the lackluster VA procedures: Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Jeff Merkley, Representative Val Hoyle: You’d think that for over $390 billion a year, the VA could do a better job at making it easy to get an appointment with a primary care provider. For those of you who might not be aware (and why would you be – to the best of my knowledge, none of you’ve ever worn a uniform, let alone served in a combat zone), it’s not possible to set up your own appointments – for anything – on the VA’s website. All you can do is send a message to your care provider’s “team.” If your message indicates any degree of urgency, this will result in a voicemail left on your home phone, requesting you call a number recognizable as belonging to Roseburg VA Health Care, or in the event they call your cell phone, the caller is identified as “Public Service.” In this day and age of prolific scams, I send such calls to voicemail. When retrieved, the message tells you to call another number – this one recognizable as being the Eugene Health Clinic. When either of these numbers is called, you end up talking to some kind of call center (that, as near as I can tell, isn’t even located in Oregon), which has no ability to pull up your provider’s schedule on its screen. As a result, you’re told they have to contact your team to obtain your provider’s appointment schedule. Today, after being put on hold for a prolonged period, with the operator having no luck getting someone on the phone, I told her it would be faster for me to use my gas, which thanks to the president’s economy is now costing me $4.30 a gallon, drive to the Eugene clinic, and talk to someone in person to arrange an appointment, which I did. I am a disabled veteran, and while there are veterans in much worse shape than I who use the VA’s facility, none of us should have to jump through these kinds of hoops to be seen by our assigned physician. I know for a fact that civilian private healthcare systems allow enrollees to schedule appointments through their patient portals. “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan” doesn’t mean it takes four phone calls to be told you can’t get there from here. Here’s an idea: Get it fixed. You three owe that much to those of us who sacrificed to maintain the freedom American citizens enjoy.

3