Tiffany Revelle
Record-Bee staff
LAKEPORT ? Dr. Bradley Clair has no problem serving his country. He”s set for deployment to Iraq next Friday. After training in Ft. Benning, Georgia, he”ll manage an intensive care unit in Al Asad, 100 miles west of Baghdad.
Although Clair said he”s been deployed twice before over the past four years, this will be the first time he will be in a combat zone.
“I”m a little nervous,” said Clair, adding, “It”s a good nervous. When a doctor goes to war, it”s the ultimate test of your skills.”
For instance, he doesn”t triage large volumes of patients every day in his cardiology practice. That and dealing with mass-casualty situations are things he will face in Iraq during his 90-day tour of duty. Tough calls involving human lives will also be part of his job. “You don”t utilize all your resources on someone who looks like they can”t be saved. That”s an extremely hard decision to make,” he said.
Not to mention how humbled Clair said he”s been by families telling him how comforted they are to know that he will be overseas to take care of their sons and daughters who are also serving in Iraq.
“It”s very humbling because I”m going over there for three months, and I”m relatively safe in a hospital, and their child might be out there in harm”s way,” said Clair, his demeanor solemn.
And while he”s serving his country, who will serve his patients?
Thursday will be Clair”s last day at his clinic behind Sutter Lakeside Hospital before he departs for his 90-day tour in Iraq, leaving his cardiology practice in the hands of another doctor.
The problem is that the replacement physician can only bill Medicare for 60 days of the approximately 100 days Clair expects he”ll be overseas, including travel time.
“I called up Mike Thompson”s office and said, ?this just isn”t fair,”” he said. Having done this twice before, Clair said he”s had to pay a substitute doctor for coverage beyond the 60-day limit, which he said cost him tens of thousands of dollars both times. The alternative is to find another stand-in, which would mean the expensive and cumbersome proposition of hiring a headhunter company, said Clair.
Military reserve doctors called to active duty who aren”t able to do hire multiple replacements or pay to keep one on risk either losing patients or leaving their patients without care, according to a press release from Representative Thompson”s office.
Thompson (D-CA), a Vietnam veteran, and Sam Johnson (R-TX), a 29-year Air Force veteran and former Vietnam prisoner of war, introduced HR 2429 to fix the problem. The bill aims to suspend the 60-day cap for physicians filling in for Armed Forces Reserve and Guard members called for duty through the rest of the calendar year.
“This bill is just common sense and eliminates red tape for those serving our country ? and their communities. It”s time we helped our weekend warriors ? who happen to be doctors ? to keep their patients and their practice,” said Johnson. He added, “This bill is a slam dunk!”
And when it came to the House of Representatives, it was. The bill passed the House Wednesday 422 ? 0, with one one representative not voting.
“The lovely thing about the bill is that it showed how partisan politics can turn into bipartisan politics when there is a wrong to be corrected,” said Clair.
Even so, Clair said his deployment will still cost him. A substitute physician, no matter how capable, is not as familiar with a doctor”s patients as the original doctor, noted Clair, which can mean fewer patients can be seen on a given day to give a stand-in doctor adequate time to familiarize himself with each patient”s needs.
“This will lessen the losses,” said Clair.
He pointed out that doctors used to have it a lot worse before a Congressional MOU cut their tour of duty to 90 days, as opposed to the year to year and a half they used to serve like everyone else before the Gulf War.
Thompson and Johnson have been pushing for the passage of HR 2429 as an urgency bill since Clair approached Thompson”s office two months ago.
“Passage of this bill provides an immediate fix for physicians serving right now,” said Thompson in a press release. “It will help thousands of physicians protect their patients and practices when they”re called to duty and away serving our country. But we need to make sure that this problem is permanently fixed. Representative Johnson and I are planning to introduce legislation that will do that and we are optimistic that it will receive equally strong support.”
When asked if his practice would be covered for this tour, Clair said, “If the Senate approves it.”
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
