Posted on 02/07/2021 9:32:17 AM PST by Arones
Some veterans across the country are making contingency plans in case they run out of medications before they arrive in the mail as U.S. Postal Service delays mount.
Melissa Ned, a U.S. Navy veteran, has been waiting about three weeks for her two leukemia medications to arrive. She can't just go to her nearest Department of Veterans Affairs hospital to get them -- it's two hours away and its pharmacy has been mostly closed during the pandemic.
"I gave up calling the VA pharmacy since COVID-19," she said. "Nobody answered and I automatically got disconnected.
Vietnam Army veteran John Williams said he went without his heart medication and a prescription painkiller -- for injuries he sustained in service -- for nearly four weeks. He still hasn't received any of his medications in the mail, but his daughter-in-law, who is also a postal worker and a veteran, drove him to his local VA to pick up replacements.
"The VA said they'd rush me a new supply by mail," Williams said. "But that never arrived either. Nothing like this has ever happened before ... I think what would have happened if I didn't have someone to help me get there. Some people could be really hurt."
(Excerpt) Read more at radio.com ...
Due to shortages, they will only give me 30 days worth of my blood pressure meds, but it takes more that 30 days to get a refill. I last ordered on January 10th, and it still has not arrived. VA indicates it was put in the mail on February 3.
I'd note, too, that the VA is blaming USPS, but the 24 day delay from ordering until it is put in the mail is not the fault of the post office.
Not a veteran and my prescriptions were mailed by a private pharmacy, but were ordered on Jan 20, shipped on Jan 21, arrived in Hyattsville Md on the 23rd, sat for 6 days, then finally arrived in Richmond on the 29th, had enough to last until Feb.1.
The USPS then sent them to Aylett, VA on Saturday Jan 30 instead of delivering them to me, then they sent them to St. Louis MO where they still are as far as I can tell.
Doctor called in a short fill from local pharmacy, hope they eventually arrive.
I have always gotten my VA meds by mail in a timely manner and still do. Wife gets hers from ChampVA and they are also delivered within 10 days of ordering.
I use MyHealthyVet and order on line and I call wife’s in by phone.
Of course the article said “some” VA clinics.
Guess mine is one of the better.
No issues here, about ten days from phone order to mail box. I think it depends on what facility you use. I use Tn. Valley HCS out of Nashville and their Murfreesboro center. Nothing but good words for those people.
You WILL pay more taxes.....or die.
I generally don’t have any problems with the USPS, but I had a weird experience about a month ago when I ordered something from amazon, to be shipped via USPS. I live near Seattle, and the item I ordered was shipped from a town near Denver, Colorado. It then went EAST, first to a place called Oxford, Mississippi, and then further EAST to Birmingham, Alabama. From there, it came all the way back across the country to Seattle. I have no idea why the package first travelled a thousand miles in the wrong direction.
Things slow here in the Ozarks. But then, everything is. 30 day supply given for hard to get meds. That seems to be the problem.
The pharmacy at the Chattanooga VA clinic closed several years ago during Obama’s time...
All our meds have to come from the VA hospital in Murfreesboro 2/3 hours away.... They take about 10 days normally, now its much longer.... If veterans jump through hoops thy can go to a local CVS and get their meds but you have to be armed with a slew of code numbers for the VA, and you have to know you need them and to call Murfreesboro for them hoping they will give them to you over the phone...plus know who to talk to...
In Nov I had cataract surgery...trying to get the necessary drops from CVS was a pain and took most of a day of calling back and forth to Murfreesboro to explain the code numbers they gave me wouldnt work in the CVS system ...try telling VA people they were wrong...they get POed very quickly..forget about that ‘service to veterans’ garbage...
See tagline.
I ordered an inexpensive item online back in early November. Got the USPS tracking number from the vendor via email. Put the number into the USPS tracking software which said tracking number was either wrong or USPS hadn’t received the package.
Emailed the vendor and they replied USPS had picked up the package on the day the vendor originally said. And they verified the tracking number was correct.
Lots of folks mail pkgs via USPS in Nov getting ready for Christmas. So I gave it week and tracked the pkg again. Now the tracking said, “Your pkg in moving within the USPS system and is on the way to the final destination.” But, unlike UPS and FedEx, the tracking didn’t say where the pkg was. I was invited to use “Informed Delivery.” For just $2 I could get the missing detail. And the $2 applied to this pkg only. The USPS was now charging for something I could get for free from UPS or FedEx.
Another week went by and the tracking software said the same thing. I decided to call USPS. After sitting on hold for a LONG time, the person basically said they had no further info. It was getting on towards Christmas and I let it go.
About a week after Christmas I tracked and got the same message. At that point I gave up.
Then in the latter part of January I got an mail from USPS saying, in so many words, “Sorry but we lost your pkg. Better luck next time and Merry Christmas.” This was a month after Christmas!
Thus my tagline.
One of the big problems at present besides clinics being closed due to the Wu Hu Flu is the fact that a lot of veterans lost their jobs last year and the job connected health insurance so they are now going to the VA clinics and hospitals...
Ive had appointments cancelled and put off for 6 months to a year...
Ive learnt now though...the same day that happens I apply for President Trump’s Mission Act to go to a local doctor...and now dentist...
My cataract surgery was done locally because the eye clinic at Murfreesboro closed in July and is not yet opened...
Maybe it isn’t just VA patients. USPS was so entrenched in their end of stealing the election, that the slowdown seemed to occur across the country. We sure experienced it in our area, and we aren’t VA people.
I’m retired military using Tricare Prime, the military health care system.
When I see a doctor and he prescribes me meds, it goes to government Express Scripts pharmacy out of St Louis and usually gets to me within a week, unless it is priority (and the doctor can select this) and it is shipped out over night with one day FedEx delivery.
I’m retired military using Tricare Prime, the military health care system.
I am retired, too. I get my care at te VA because I want them to have all records for my disability appeal.
I use MyHealthyVet and order online, too. My wife calls hers into Camp Pendleton and can pick up in two days.
VA worked fine until recently.
I’m in the San Diego system. I live 30 mi north of the hospital. It used to work fine.
Otherwise, I’ve had great care.
30 day supply given for hard to get meds. That seems to be the problem.
Agree. Plus, you cannot have a lead time that is longer than the 30 day supply.
I love the Murfreesboro clinic, very polite and cordial. If you mention you are having any medical issue, they bend over backwards to administer any and all test or procedures needed to get to the bottom of your medical complaint.
I live in Rome, New York, an hour east of Syracuse. My oldest son lives in Troy, an hour-and-a-half east of me. If I send him a card, it first goes two-and-a-half hours west of me, to Rochester, then heads back east until it arrives at his place. In the past two months, I've had packages I mailed to my youngest son in Carmel, Indiana, take 10 days just to get from my Rome post office to the distribution center in Rochester. My youngest son also sells on Ebay, and at the end of December, he still had packages that he'd shipped the first week of December, that hadn't been received by the buyers.
When I called my local post office to complain about the 10 day lag on a package I had sent, the person I spoke to said they are being swamped with packages from Amazon. When he said that, I told him that it wasn't fair that Amazon shipping was getting prioritized over regular priority mail. He didn't say anything to correct me, so I'm assuming that I was right about the postal service giving priority to Amazon packages.
Mine have been on time as well. No troubles at all.
mail, not all mail, is sorted by hand.
As Forest Gump coined the phrase “Sh*t happens”
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