Affiliate Network Sites
A program of Veterans Discseel Network
A service line for the veterans you already have
Open a procedure to your existing census that you cannot offer today, because there is no authorization pathway behind it. VDN supplies that pathway.
How the Network Works
From a patient you already have to a completed case
Nine steps from identifying a candidate in your own census to your compensation clearing. At each one, this page states which party carries it — because the split of responsibility is fixed, and your clinical practice stays entirely yours.
The lifecycle
Where the service line stops today, and what opens it
Steps two through four are the ones a practice cannot build on its own. They are also the reason a clinically appropriate case never reaches a procedure day.
- 1
You identify a candidate in your own census
AffiliateA veteran already in your practice presents with chronic disc-related back or neck pain, has completed or failed conservative management, and is enrolled in or eligible for VA health care. Your census is yours, and building it remains your own work and expense — the network does not supply patients.
- 2
The patient enters VDN intake
Affiliate → VDNWith the patient's consent, the case transfers into network intake. This is the step that makes the service line available: without it, the case has nowhere to go.
- 3
Authorization
VDNVDN operates the authorization pathway and tracks the authorization through to the procedure. Eligibility for care in the community is determined by VA — not by VDN and not by the affiliate.
- 4
Intake, records, and coordination
VDNCentralized intake, records and imaging collection, and patient coordination through the episode — so your front desk is not absorbing the administrative load of every case.
- 5
Forecast and scheduling
Affiliate → VDNThe affiliate provides a rolling thirty-day forecast of confirmed, scheduled cases and reserves dedicated procedure days against it. VDN provides scheduling support and patient preparation.
- 6
Evaluation and candidacy
AffiliateYour physician evaluates the patient and determines candidacy from the diagnostic findings. That determination is the treating physician's alone. Candidacy criteria are set by VDN as a condition of participation, but the clinical judgment is not overridden.
- 7
Procedure day
AffiliateYour physician performs the case in your licensed procedure suite, with your credentialed support staff and procedure kits built to VDN specification, following VDN clinical protocol and documentation standard. Where the practice does not have a physician trained in the Discseel® Procedure — referred to within the network as the Intradiscal Stabilization Procedure (ISP℠), VDN provides one.
- 8
Billing, follow-up, and outcome registry
VDNClaim submission, denials and appeals, and collections are handled centrally. VDN follow-up intervals remain with VDN — that is where the outcome registry is built, and it is not delegated to the site.
- 9
Compensation
VDN → AffiliateThe affiliate is compensated per spinal level treated, as documented by the treating physician in the procedure record. The rate is all-inclusive. Cases with no treated level generate no compensation.
The split, fixed
Who carries what
This does not flex by site. It is the same arrangement for every affiliate in the network.
The affiliate carries
- • A treating physician trained in the procedure — or VDN provides one where the practice has none
- • Licensed procedure suite, to the state's standard for the setting
- • Documentation of licensure, accreditation, and survey status
- • Dedicated procedure days for network cases
- • Credentialed clinical support staff
- • Procedure kits produced to VDN specification
- • Your own patient census and the work of building it
VDN carries
- • Payer relationship and authorization pathway
- • Authorization tracking through to the procedure
- • Clinical protocol, candidacy criteria, documentation standard
- • Centralized intake, records collection, and coordination
- • Administrative and billing infrastructure
- • Outcome registry and long-term patient follow-up
- • A trained treating physician, where the practice does not have one
Patient volume is not on either list, because it is not something the network delivers. VDN does not route patients to affiliate sites — the service line is for the veterans already in your practice.
Standards
State governs the room. VDN governs the medicine. You practice it.
This distinction is load-bearing and it does not blur.
Facility standards — your state’s
The applicable facility standard is the standard set by the state in which the site operates, for the setting in which the procedure is performed. VDN does not set facility standards and does not substitute its judgment for state requirements. The standard travels with the site, not the network.
The affiliate carries the burden of proof and delivers source documentation before the first case, maintained current through the term. VDN receives and verifies; it does not inspect and approve.
Clinical standards — VDN’s
Set by VDN, conditions of network participation, and not subject to modification at the site level:
- • VDN clinical protocol, in full
- • VDN kit specification
- • VDN documentation standard
- • VDN follow-up intervals
- • VDN candidacy criteria — the determination itself is made solely by the treating physician