Pam Marino here with some very good news about a Monterey veteran who is finally on the mend after a long wait for help. I’m talking about Kelly Potter, the U.S. Army veteran I wrote about in February, who languished in the Veterans Administration system for more than nine months in need of knee surgery.
Potter wrenched her knee on the beach in April 2025 and went to the Maj. General William H. Gourley VA-DoD Outpatient Clinic in Marina for treatment. She was referred to an orthopedic surgeon at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center, 74 miles away. Potter requested local treatment through VA Community Care, available to veterans if they are more than 60 miles away from a VA hospital.
What followed was months of waiting then insistence by the VA that she go to Palo Alto, only to be told there were no surgery slots until spring 2026. The VA then agreed to Community Care, followed by more months of waiting. Potter finally began writing and calling everyone she could think of seeking help.
In January, she heard back from a caseworker in Rep. Jimmy Panetta’s office, as well as received support from the California Department of Veterans Affairs and the Monterey County Office of Military and Veterans Affairs. She got an appointment with a Monterey orthopedic surgeon on Jan. 19.
Her knee replacement surgery was last month and Potter is very happy with the results. She calls herself a “super healer,” and is following through with her challenging physical therapy. “No pain, no gain!” she says of doing her exercises. Potter says she has full extension and flexion of the leg back, a relief since she previously worried the long wait would result in permanent damage.
Potter credits success in finding help by following what she calls “PPP”: be polite, be persistent, be a pest. “You have to be very persistent,” she says.
But what about veterans who can’t be as much of a polite, persistent pest as Potter? There’s some news on that front, too.
On April 6, Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, and Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Florida, introduced the bipartisan SCHEDULES (“Scheduling for Community Health and Easy Data to Understand for Legislators to Evaluate Services”) Act of 2026, House of Representatives Bill 8199, to ensure timely treatment for veterans seeking specialty care. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
“Far too often, veterans face lengthy delays to receive the care they need, especially in rural communities,” Panetta said in a press release.
The bill would establish a national timing standard between referrals and appointments at VA facilities or through Community Care. It would also require reporting of performance metrics and rankings for each VA facility.
Currently there is no benchmark for how long veterans should wait to actually receive care.
Franklin introduced a similar bill in 2024. It was referred to the Committee on Veterans Affairs and never made it out of committee.
Let’s hope Panetta and other legislators get a big dose of Potter’s PPP and push the SCHEDULES Act through this time. Veterans deserve nothing less.