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In the article "Crisis in Health Care Reimbursement" in the Sept. 5 issue, numerous shortcomings with our current health care system were reported, including the lack of consistency across insurance companies for covered services, declining reimbursement rates, delayed reimbursements, increased paperwork time, and decreased services for low-income patients. It was then stated that utilizing the government was not the key to solving the reimbursement issues because "anytime the federal government gets into anything, it creates problems." This statement fails to realize the numerous benefits that the federal government provides to the health care field. An example is the excellent care provided by the Veterans Health Administration.
The VA is able to provide exceptional care by utilizing evidenced-based protocols, direct access care, computerized patient record system, and cost savings with volume discounts for medical items such as hearing aids. That is to say that covered services are consistent, patients only see a doctor when medically necessary (i.e., no medical clearance is needed for routine hearing aid fittings), paperwork is reduced with the computerized record system, and costs are contained. In addition, the VA provides some of the highest paying jobs in our field. One of the many benefits to having worked at the VA was that I only had to deal with one bureaucracy-the federal government. Our field should look towards the example set by this agency of the federal government for ways to improve not only our take-home pay but also the services that we provide.
Marc Brennan
Seattle, WA
mabrenn1@u.washington.edu
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