Posted on 04/18/2017 8:22:07 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Some ailing veterans can now use their federal health care benefits at CVS “MinuteClinics” to treat minor illnesses and injuries, under a pilot program announced Tuesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The new program, currently limited to the Phoenix area, comes three years after the VA faced allegations of chronically long wait times at its centers, including its Phoenix VA medical center, which treats about 120,000 veterans.
The Phoenix pilot program is a test-run by VA Secretary David Shulkin who is working on a nationwide plan to reduce veterans’ wait times.
Veterans would not be bound by current restrictions under the VA’s Choice program, which limits outside care to those who have been waiting more than 30 days for an appointment or have to drive more than 40 miles to a facility. Instead, Phoenix VA nurses staffing the medical center’s help line will be able to refer veterans to MinuteClinics for government-paid care when “clinically appropriate.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I went to one. Thought I had strep throat. I couldn’t get an appointment with my doctor until the following day. Went to minute clinic and got tested and med within an hour.
My daughter needed refill on birth control, and went to minute clinic.
They also do physical for kids participating in sports.
It’s much cheaper than regular doctor appointment.
I tried Minute Clinic a few times, but never again. Twice they prescribed the wrong antibiotic (and I mean completely wrong) so the symptoms and suffering continued and when I went back, they sent me to my primary care doc.
When it happened the first time, I thought it must have just been a fluke and gave them the benefit of the doubt. When it happened again (for a different ailment), I knew I wouldn’t be back.
They are not doctors, and they just look on the computer to see what to prescribe. Not recommended, unless you just need a flu shot.
CVS in Manassas Virginia recently quit accepting TRICARE. For VA to work with them now is another slap at veterans.
I am in CA. and CVS here has stopped accepting tri care also I had to re register my mom at Walmart and Costco!!! Target turned their Pharmacies into CVS Target was very close by other than her scripts refused to go inside one, NOW I don’t have to enter a Target for ANYTHING!!
As a veteran at about Tier 5 on the priority scale, I’ve never used a VA facility. However, I dont understand why the VA just doesnt incorprate VA care into either TRICARE or Medicare. Im sure its not that simole, yet again, it shouldnt be that hard either.
Kroger’s Little Clinic has a actual PA you see with the authority to write certain scripts.
BUT keep in mind that VA CAP for care still applies. IF you are not on VA CARE now because of Income requirement, then you pay for that visit or your ins does.
Medicare/Tricare Life will cover such a visit.
I get my flu shots, etc. at CVS. I always have to carve out a 45 minute window. They’re pretty slow. Still easier than going to the doctor’s office.
Minuteclinics and their knockoffs are great. They take a lot of pressure off the emergency rooms. If you’ve got something non-life threatening and easily treated with a scrip you can be in and out of of one of those in under an hour. Much better than being in the emergency room forever as you keep getting bumped for people that might actually die, and you’re not clogging up emergency with a non-emergency. Everybody wins.
I’m pretty sure the clinics are staffed with a minimum of a Certified Nurse Practician.
CVS left the TRICARE system last year around 1 Dec 16. Walgreens came back into the system but here in north Stafford County, VA there are no Walgreens. Twice in the past several years I had to get a prescription late at night and went to the 24 hour CVS a mile from my home. Now, without CVS in the network there is no way to get a prescription without driving many miles.
Yes, those minute clinic set-ups are pretty much only good for minor things like flu, rash, ear infection, etc. diagnosis.
They don’t have x-ray or other diagnostic equipment.
Someone’s reply above that an urgent care would be more suited to provide a better range of health services is right.
“Most of our mom&pop pharmacies are gone. Sadly. I loved our small local pharma service. They knew you, you knew them. Not some snotty teenager who acts like you are pond scum.”
The last of the mom&pop pharmacies closed up here a couple years ago. It also doubled as the only Christian book store in the area. Like you said, they knew their customers. Now, it’s all the major chains, and the young people working behind the counter think they know better than than doctors AND treat the customers like pond scum.
Exactly, here is your strep test now go home and drink fluids and sleep.
Actually most likely a nurse practitioner with a Master degree level training. Not unlike what many people get when they go to the doctor for minor complaints. My recent yearly cardiology appointment was with the NP.
Like everything else in the modern world, they are great if you if you have some basic knowledge going in. Suspicious that you have strep or a sinus infection or a sprained ankle, you can go there get a checkup, get your blood drawn, and have your meds in probably an hour. And you aren’t in an ER for six hours being exposed to TB.
My PCP almost always needs a week to see me.
Not exactly sure how this would work with the VA unless the idea is to expand these into something more akin to urgent care - where you can get an x-ray and an MRI or something along those lines.
If it was late at night [past closing], or on a weekend, and you had a kid with a fever, or some such emergency, the phone to the pharmacy was in their home upstairs; and they answered it. Talk about service! There was no answering machine or *phone tree* to wrangle.
And if you needed it right away, the pharmacist’s wife would drop it by the house, pronto.
Amazing the amount of trust you had in those folks; you saw them at church, at town meetings, scouts, local sporting events, etc. The fabric of the community. I miss that.
When I travel through the state, mostly in very small towns, and see a little *no-name* pharmacy hanging on, makes me so nostalgic for the old times. Small in good.
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