Let's put what he did in non-VA terms. He is outside of his home state, and shows up at a random, but somehow in-network, clinic. He presents, not with an emergency, but as a walk-in for a routine surgical evaluation (hernia), without his insurance cards or records. His records are at a far-away hospital, and while he is insistent that he has insurance, the local clinic is unable to easily verify this.
Try this as a walk-in at any prestigious medical center, and you'll be lucky to get seen within a few hours, not to mention forms for privacy, release of records, patient registration, etc., and calls to your insurer and, ultimately, probably a fax of your records from the other institution.
Let's not put blame on a situation at which no medical facility could succeed.
The writer is a hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and also provides part-time care at the VA Medical Center in West Roxbury. His views here are his own.