The article makes my stomach burn.
"We need you to jump through all these hoops, successfully."
"Okay, I made it through them, can I have my medical back?"
"No."
And that's pretty much it for most people, because they don't have the funds to take it any farther. Imagine being a regional FO, and having a health issue. You'd be done by the time you left the hospital.
I was in a car accident last year and called in sick for one trip because the ER, who I went to on the advice of my attorney, gave me a muscle relaxer. It took almost another two months to get my medical when I renewed, because of a minor car accident. I had to prove that I wasn't disabled/on disability. The whole time I'm thinking to myself, "Am I going to lose my medical over a car accident? Is this some kind of a joke?"
The FAA Aeromedical division is quite possibly the most archaic government agency around.