From MSN/USA Today:
“VIP health system for top US
officials risked jeopardizing care for rank-and-file soldiers”
Top U.S. officials in the
Washington area have received preferential treatment from a little-known health
care program run by the military, potentially jeopardizing care for other
patients including active-duty service members, according to Pentagon investigators.
White House officials, senior
military and other national security leaders, retired military officers, and
family members have all benefited. The Washington elite could jump the line
when filling prescriptions, book appointments through special call centers, and
receive choice parking spots and escorts at military hospitals and other
facilities, including Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda,
Maryland, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general.
Through a unit at the White
House, government personnel were routinely allowed to receive treatment under
aliases, providing no home address or insurance information. For some of them,
the care was free, as Walter Reed had no way to bill for it or waive charges. The so-called executive medicine program was
described in a report the Pentagon’s inspector general released in January. The
investigation drew extensive media attention for spotlighting a history of
loose prescribing practices and poor controls of powerful drugs including
opioids in the White House Medical Unit, a military outfit that attends to the
president, vice president, and others in the White House compound.
But the White House Medical Unit
is just the tip of the broader executive medicine program, intended to provide
VIP treatment to senior government and military officials. Though the program
is meant largely to accommodate top officials’ busy schedules, the privileges
have followed many patients into retirement. According to data from late 2019
and early 2020, the inspector general reported, that 80% of the executive
medicine population in the national capital region were military retirees and
members of their families. Some facilities “provided access to care for
executive medicine patients over active-duty military patients that had acute
needs,” according to the report, which added that prioritizing medical care by
seniority rather than medical need “increased the risk to the health and safety
of non‑executive
general patient population.”
Much of the report was written in
past tense, leaving unclear whether all the practices it described continue.
Before the report was made public, a draft was under review by the White House
Medical Unit for more than three years – from May 2020, when Donald Trump was
in office, to July 2023. The delay isn’t explained in the report, and White
House spokespeople didn’t respond to questions for this article. A spokesperson
for the inspector general’s office, Deputy Assistant Inspector General Reishia
Kelsey, declined to elaborate on the report. A spokesperson for the Pentagon,
James P. Adams, also declined to comment. In a response included in the
inspector general’s report, a Pentagon official said there were “new procedures
already put in place by the White House Medical Unit.” The report didn’t detail
those changes.
At Walter Reed, the program is available to Cabinet members; members of Congress; Supreme Court justices; active-duty and retired generals and flag officers and their beneficiaries; members of the Senior Executive Service who retired from the military; secretaries, deputy secretaries, and assistant secretaries of the Department of Defense and military departments; certain foreign military officers; and Medal of Honor recipients. Walter Reed’s executive medicine program caters to the “time, privacy, and security demands” of leaders’ jobs, the hospital says on its website. The inspector general's report makes clear that the program has, at times, provided extraordinary privileges to the government’s most elite officials.
For example, one unnamed
executive medicine patient asked to have a prescription for an unspecified
“controlled medication” refilled two weeks early – and complained when pharmacy
staff at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital said that wasn’t allowed. Hospital
leaders told hospital staff to fill the prescription as requested. According to
the report, the staff said the task required an estimated 30 hours of extra
work. Controlled medications are subject to abuse, and some, such as opioids,
can be addictive. Defense Department health policy calls for minimizing the use
of opioids and prescribing them only when indicated.
A spokesperson for the Fort
Belvoir hospital, now known as Alexander T. Augusta Military Medical Center,
said every patient is seen through the same lens and treated with the care they
deserve. The spokesperson, Reese Brown, said the facility shows military
deference to top officers on account of their rank. For example, they don’t
have to sit with the general population of patients. The facility’s website
mentions an “Executive Medicine Health & Wellness Clinic” for authorized
patients, including eligible family members. Brown said he was unaware of the
inspector general’s account of the prescription refill and had no information
about it. The report said that at one unidentified pharmacy site, “all pharmacy
staff members expressed frustration about the prioritization and filling of
executive medicine prescriptions. This prioritization of executive medicine
prescriptions diverted the pharmacist from filling prescriptions for patients
diagnosed with conditions that are more urgent.”
Executive medicine services are
also provided at the DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic at the Pentagon, Fort
McNair Army Health Clinic, and Andrew Rader U.S. Army Health Clinic, the report
said. The inspector general recommended the Department of Defense take steps
such as establishing controls for billing nonmilitary senior officials for
outpatient services. The assistant secretary of defense for health affairs
agreed but said the department would consider “the historical practices of the
White House Medical Unit, the DoD’s health care support for non‑military
U.S. Government senior officials, and the need for strict security protocols to
protect the health and safety of White House principals.” KFF
Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News, is a national newsroom that
produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core
operating programs at KFF – an independent source for health policy research,
polling, and journalism.
^ Clearly this Program is/was an
abuse of the Military Healthcare System that had a direct and hurtful impact on
Ordinary Soldiers and their Families. ^
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