The Broken Soldier

I received authorization for medical care last week. At first my wife and I were excited - in a guarded sort of way. We felt perhaps our efforts to get care under the approved line of duty had paid off. That feeling of excited relief was quickly replaced with familiar anger and frustration.

As my wife and I feared, the medical care authorized was not the solution to our problems (as it was billed). Like the last authorization this authorization was written in such a way that what is covered is unclear. From a casual reading, which is all one can expect from a medical clinic billing department, the visit is covered, but not the procedures or prescriptions. I asked for specificity with receipt of the last authorization because of this very problem. It is clear the people involved do not feel my input, based on my experiences in continuing to pay for medical treatment for an approved in the line of duty injury, that of congressional aids, or civilian medical professionals is important.

As well, the authorization is for pain management. A pain management clinic is not equipped or designed to address my condition. Pain management is by definition a palliative specialty. That is to say, one whose goal lies in addressing symptoms but not cause(s) of those symptoms. If those in positions to grant approval for medical care were paying attention, assuming they possess knowledge of medicine greater than or equal to my own, they would have granted approval for a neurosurgeon. The request for pain management was, as stated by both my doctor and I in written requests, a means to an end. That end was a neurosurgery consult and hopefully some pain relief between the time of our request and the time surgery could be performed. When it became clear authorization was going to take much longer than five business days (the explanation I received from SFC Weir in MING JFHQ Health Services), my doctor and I requested a direct neurosurgery consultation. This request was ignored. Authorizing the wrong care took more than two months.

Medical personnel granting authorization should also understand, again assuming they possess knowledge of medicine greater than or equal to my own, consistent with current literature, the longer an injury like mine goes untreated the worse the prognosis becomes. Surgery at this point, eight months after the injury, will likely do little to improve my condition. Surgery will, however, arrest further expression of new symptoms, and may have a remote chance to reduce in degree of those already present.

These people simply do not care. They don’t care about the job they do, and they don’t care about the consequences their below average performances create for those they service. The longer they wait the harder my condition is to treat. The harder my condition is to treat the more expensive it will be to treat it. And with the line of duty concluded and approved the government is on the hook. You, the tax payers, are on the hook. You will be paying for my medical care and my disability compensation. You’ll also likely be paying for me to retrain, possibly sending me to law school. (Thanks by the way. You may want to thank your local congressional representative, as they have the power to make this system more efficient but lack the courage to do so. They aren’t the most refulgent stars in the cosmos though, so I’d lay the sarcasm on real thick.) Again, in this we all lose. I lose the full use of my legs and a life generally lived without constant pain. You lose money in the form of tax dollars to pay for medical care, disability compensation, and costs to re-educate me. The government loses a body in uniform, a fledgling company grade officer, revenue from property taxes, and a portion of its budget. Sacrificed on the alter of status quo by dull, lazy, audacious and complacent agents of the government (who are here to help).