During the House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on March 29, Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), a U.S. Army Vietnam War-era veteran, needed answers from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough regarding veterans’ access to pharmaceuticals.
McDonough was testifying in front of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies subcommittee in support of the Biden administration’s $325.1 billion proposed VA budget for 2024, which includes $121 billion in discretionary funding for medical care—an increase of $2.3 billion over the enacted amount for 2023.
“Apparently, the time processing the prescriptions and availability of essential medications for veterans has been a problem and appears to be recurring,” said Bishop.
“As I hear from my case workers, we have issues with the pharmacy network and reimbursement.”
Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) Public Domain
Bishop asked McDonough if the VA had a plan to expand the organization’s pharmacy network and provide better access to in-network pharmacies, and what the agency was doing to make the process easier and more efficient for veterans to be reimbursed for medications they purchase from out-of-network pharmacies.
The congressman also inquired of McDonough, “What is it you can do, what are you doing, to ensure that mail-order pharmacy issues don’t negatively impact medication adherence, and health outcomes, particularly with our rural veterans?”
In responding, the secretary admitted that he was unaware of at least one area about which Bishop voiced concern.
“In terms of simplifying, making more transparent how the network pharmacists can get more quickly reimbursed, and then making the same process more transparent for out-of-network pharmacists,” said McDonough.
“I confess that this is the first time I’ve heard of these issues ... so what I’d like to do is just make sure that we get our team connected with the right person on your team, your caseworker, so we can find out precisely what’s happening.”
McDonough said he had not heard about problems with reimbursement as a “system-wide issue so there might be something specific in Georgia that we can address.”
The secretary vouched for the mail-order prescription service, saying that “it’s pretty efficient, very cost efficient; but it also doesn’t require travel or other challenges for many of our rural vets, which we have seen impacts adherence.”
Bishop jumped in and suggested that the issue could be with the U.S. Postal Service.
“Well, it can be, but as a general matter we feel pretty good about what we’ve experienced,” said McDonough. “But, again … I’d like to … make sure that we get with the same case workers to identify particularly what’s going on.”
Vietnam War Veterans Day
The MILCON and VA subcommittee hearing took place on National Vietnam War Veterans Day.President Trump signed the bill into law in 2017 that designated every March 29—the anniversary of the day in 1973 that United States combat troops officially left Vietnam and the last recognized American prisoner of war from the conflict was released—as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.
In his opening statement at the hearing, McDonough, a Minnesota native, said: “Fifty years ago today, a Minnesotan named Master Sergeant Max Beilke limbed aboard a C-130 and left Vietnam, the last American combat trooper to leave the country. And his service didn’t end then.
“After retiring from the Army, and after having served in both Korea and Vietnam, Master Sergeant Beilke spent the rest of his life serving, advocating for fellow vets and their families.
“And he died serving vets, serving this country. He died when the plane hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11. The last one to leave war, he was the first one to die in a new war, the longest in American history, in which many of you had a personal role.”
