Letters to the Editor
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Evaluation = medical care
When Principi says, "QTC does no treatment...We do a medical disability evaluation. I distinguish that from the treatment and the care that VA provides," he is either being disingenuous or displaying his ignorance.
Triage—determining the urgency and type of care required by the patient—is a crucial aspect of medical care at every stage, particularly initial evaluation. Precisely because this determines the level of care to come, it can't be distinguished from medical care. To get treatment, you're evaluated by a doctor; the nature of the treatment comes from the evaluation; and the doctor will see you regularly to continually evaluate your response to treatment. If a doctor prescribes antibiotics and you get them from a pharmacist, you don't say the pharmacist is treating you, you say the doctor is. If a doctor evaluates you and determines you need treatment by a specialist, even if he doesn't determine the exact form the treatment takes, he is treating you by proxy. If he says you don't need the specialist, that's a treatment determination as well.
A medical disability evaluation is indeed medical care, in that it decides if treatment occurs. That decision-making ability is the reason doctors go to medical school, and because it requires a doctor to make that call, it is de facto medical care.