8/1/2017

DRUGS/VA/VETS: “Veterans using a Department of Veterans Affairs program to seek care from doctors in the private sector instead of the VA face a greater danger of becoming entangled in the country’s opioid epidemic, the VA said Tuesday [8-1-17].
Findings from the VA’s Office of Inspector General show that programs allowing veterans to get care from private doctors when appointments aren’t available in the VA system leave veterans vulnerable to overprescription of powerful opioids because of gaps in the process used by the VA to keep track of prescriptions.
The Inspector General said problems still arise when veterans get VA-funded care from the private sector, but when patients are treated entirely within the VA system they fare better, in part due to a VA program designed to combat opioid overprescription and misuse…
The report didn’t elaborate on how many veterans may be intentionally skirting the VA system to avoid the department’s opioid tracking system.
The Inspector General launched its investigation into opioid prescription oversight some two years after the department began overhauling two major aspects of its health care.”

-Ben Kesling, “Veterans Using Private Doctors at Greater Risk for Opioid Abuse,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 1, 2017 10:46am