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It's Mark Levine with a new episode of On the Mark.
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As most of you already know, I dedicate my podcasts to our veterans, families, and friends all over the United States and worldwide.
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Today I'm going to talk about a personal situation that involves the Veterans Administration.
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So here we go.
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I am sorry I haven't published my podcasts in several weeks.
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I recently had right knee replacement surgery, and I'm having physical therapy.
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After surgery on July 10th of this year, 2026, I had physical therapy in the home and then at ATI physical therapy here in Greer, South Carolina.
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VA Community Care had set this up for me to have 15 sessions expiring on September 16th.
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My physical therapist sent a request to my surgeon to continue physical therapy after that date.
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The surgeon's office in turn would approve the referral and I would be able to return to physical therapy through VA community care.
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Well this should only take a few days.
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In this case, it is taking over a month for me to get back to physical therapy.
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I am totally frustrated and needed to find out why it is happening and has happened so long for the VA to approve my next session of physical therapy.
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Well every time I called VA Community Care, I had a different response.
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First they said all the information they had was necessary, ready to go.
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After several days with no calls to come into physical therapy, I called community care again.
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And here I was told we don't have the information to make a decision.
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I called my surgeon's office, and they said they had faxed all the information to community care.
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And this went on for several weeks.
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I finally got fed up, called my local congressman, and by the way, if you live in Greenville County, South Carolina, and need help, contact Congressman Timmins' office.
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They fixed this problem in just a few days.
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As I am writing this script, I should be receiving a call from ATI to schedule my next PT appointment.
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And I wish to thank Congressman Timmins' office, especially Callie Finch, who took care of my situation with unwavering concern and professionalism.
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And I will keep you posted on this journey to better health as we move along.
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Veterans, I admire everything you try to do for yourselves and your fellow veterans.
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The Veterans Administration is not perfect by any means, and I've had issues with them over the years, since I've been with the VA since 1970.
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So there's been ups and downs.
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This one's probably frustrating the most because it deals with my health and my physical therapy because I still need it to get my right knee back in perfect order, which is going to take several months.
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So I'm hoping to hear from the VA fairly shortly to get back and from ATI to get back into physical therapy.
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In the meantime, I'm going to the YMCA and working out.
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Talk to my physical therapist.
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They told me what exercises, what machines to work on.
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In the meantime, and if you're a veteran and you're having similar situations that I do, please contact me at marklevine51 at gmail.com.
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I'll give you all the advice I can from what I've learned from this situation.
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And also, if you have a suggestion for me to research for you as far as a veterans situation, please contact me at marklevine51 at gmail.com.
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That's M-A-R-K-L-A-V-I-N E 51 at gmail.com and I'll be glad to respond to you and uh do my research and get a really great podcast set up so you can listen to what I might have to find out in the research.
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So look, in the meantime, I want to thank you for listening to Mark Levine's On the Mark podcast, and I wish you and your family and friends good help and happiness.
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This is Mark Levine saying goodbye for now.