We are getting ready to go full time and would like to hear from some one who uses the VA for health care. My medication is mailed to our house and do not want us to go to pick it up. They also told us you cannot use a PO box for your address. How do you chose a primary? As you can see, I am totally confused. Help is appreciated.
If you notify your VA doctor that you'll be traveling, he can advise the pharmacy to authorize a 3 month supply of meds at a time.
You could also subscribe to a RV Home Base that has a mail forwarding service like Alternative Sources which is not considered a PO Box.
If you should need medical care or should run out of meds from the VA while on the road, you'll need to re-register at each VA Hospital as they do not talk to each other. So keep copies of the application/registration form and a copy (print out) of your personal VA medical records with you.
When it comes to paying for Rx meds or co-pays, each hospital does its own billing so be careful to read and check the billing address before making a payment.
Because of my travels, I am registered with 2 VA Hospitals in CA and 2 in Nevada.
* This post was
edited 06/27/09 12:32am by BIKERK9 *
I was in Virginia when I retired. We had already switched our residence to South Dakota, but still had the house in Norfolk. When I registered with the VA hospital in Hampton, VA, they wouldn't accept my South Dakota mailing address - it had to be local. So I gave them the house address.
I'm not sure what impact that will have when I start traveling, but I figure one way or another, I am entitled to VA health care regardless of my chosen life-style.
As for prescriptions, I use the Tricare Mail Order Pharmacy and have them sent to my mail forwarding address. They hold them til I send instructions on where to send them.
Greg
Retired member of the U.S. Navy's 1% Club.
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I have been fulltime since 69 and the ONLY care I have had is VA. I am registered in so many va clinics and hosp, I cudnt tell you how many or where.
The key to VA travel is , get copies of ALL yourrecords from your home hosp, before you leave and carry them with you. They have the capacity to talk to each other, (va clinics and hospitals) but they dont and wont. Make sure you get as long a time as you can for your meds.
One of the most important things to remember when dealing with the va...............CALL AHEAD... get someone with an IQ of over 50. (Unfornuately this is hard to do sometimes)
Doing it thoroughly will make your transistion smooth and easy.
So if you reg at a VA you can see the doctors at that hospital? They give me so many appointments every month. I have asthma and allergies. My wife has the same thing and her doctor give her an appointment every 3 months. I'm not complaining but it just looks difficult to manage.
trickto322 wrote: So if you reg at a VA you can see the doctors at that hospital? They give me so many appointments every month. I have asthma and allergies. My wife has the same thing and her doctor give her an appointment every 3 months. I'm not complaining but it just looks difficult to manage.
Yes, when traveling and it become necessary to see a doctor, a veteran can go to any VA Hospital or clinic for treatment. But to be seen, they must register or already be registered with that VA Hospital. Any lengthy travel plans you make requires you to reschedule everyones appointments with their doctors or reschedule your travel plans to fit appointments, meetings and events (reunions, funerals, surgery, birthdays, etc.) you can not change. That is life.
* This post was
edited 06/27/09 12:30pm by BIKERK9 *
Should you choose to join the Escapees RV Club and then use the mail service that is available to their members, your address would be much like ours, Kirk, 111 Rainbow Dr. #XXX, Livingston, TX, 77399. No business name, just a street address like anyone else.
VA has been sending my medications to a PO Box for seventeen years - so I don't know where that info comes from. I full-time, and have had some problems with treatment at out of primary clinics and someitmes with medications in the mail, but mostly work it out with emails and phone calls to my primary doctor - but that's a different issue.
But VA meds to PO Box can happen, and does. Just takes extra time to have the 'mail forward' work right ...
my va meds also go to po box. I get 3 months at a time. But some they don't want to but if you always order your meds on time every time the docter will say thay won't do it but if he puts in for it 99% if the time they will aprove it for 3 mo.
I used a PO for a year because I lived in a town that didn't have postal delivery to the houses, received my VA meds just fine matter fact felt better about it cause there locked up in your box until you pick them up.
When I was full timing and on the road I was using Utah, Idaho, and Oregon VA hospitals. The nursing staffs complained that I needed to pick a hospital and stay put because my records were going all over the place. I even received a letter from the Idaho VA Hospital in 2005 stating that I needed to decide which hospital I was going to attend and stick with that one. Maybe you won't have this problem since Obama is making the VA digitize all the records now.
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