So you think RV retiremnt is easy? Try dealing with the VA on the road!

First of all, I'm thankful for being covered under the VA for my medical care. For the most part, it's been better than many have been led to believe, it's available in most every area we've visited, and if you know how it works, it can be relatively easy to obtain - initially.

Until you need a specialist.

So, case in point, my recent slip and fall at the top of Mt. Washington. No VA emergency room nearby, so we head to the nearest civilian ER. Get in, get fixed up for the immediate issues, and go home. Then make sure to call the VA within the next 24-hours to let them know we used a civilian ER for treatment. After that, the VA covers the bills incurred at the ER, and we're good to go. Sounds too good to be true, right?

But what if you need a follow-up appointment?

Then, you have to go back into the VA system for that follow-up. If you're stationary like most Vets, there might be a delay in seeing someone based on the area and VA coverage in place. If the wait for a VA specialist is too long, the VA tries to hook you up with a private practice specialist through what's called Community Care. For the most part, that works and you can usually get your follow-up visit taken care of in a few weeks.

Not so if you're a full-time RV-er traveling from state-to-state.

First, I have to be temporarily “transferred” into the particular state's VA health care system to be seen, and that takes a visit to a VA emergency room where I will be evaluated (a waste of a VA emergency room), possibly taken care of if there is a specialist on-hand, or more likely an attempt is made to set me up with a specialist at a later date. The problem is that there aren't enough specialists in the VA system to see someone in less than 4 weeks or even 4 months depending on what is needed, so we're usually in another state by the time any appointment can be made. And Community Care, while having more options than the VA, can also take weeks to set up an appointment. Plus, your referral for Community Care doesn't travel with you from state-to-state; it's only good for the VA system you have been “transferred “ into. (Sigh) So once we leave one state for another, I have to start all over again – IF I think we'll be there long enough for it to matter.

So now I have a broken left hand that needs to be looked at by someone other than an ER doctor, I'm now in Maine instead of where the injury took place in New Hampshire, records have to be transmitted from the civilian ER to the new VA system I have been temporarily “transferred” into, and I'll be in Massachusetts before an appointment in Maine can be established! And forget about starting it all over again in Massachusetts, because I'll only be there for one week!

So now, my follow up appointment with an orthopedic specialist that should have been done in 2 weeks will now have to be set up in the Atlanta area almost 5 weeks after the initial injury (if I'm lucky!), and I have to hope the ER doctor did their job right initially or I'll have to have surgery to correct the fully-healed problem – extending my recuperation into months instead of weeks. Oh, and I can't just get a referral from my primary care doctor to see an orthopedic specialist in Atlanta. That would be too easy. No, I have to go to the Atlanta VA emergency room with my disk of X-rays to have the ER physician on staff see me in order to refer me to Radiology with a form that allows them to scan my disk into their system, ONLY after I give them a form from the original ER to transfer my medical records from that visit to the appropriate VA! BY FAX! And then I MIGHT see an orthopedic specialist at the Atlanta VA hospital that day, but probably not.

And don't get me started on scheduling a colonoscopy . . .

Retirement can be tougher than you think.