At Hearing Portman Presses Postmaster General on Delays in Veterans Receiving Prescriptions By Mail
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, at a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) pressed the United States Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to come up with a solution that addresses the delays U.S. military veterans have reported in receiving their prescription medications by mail.
An excerpt from the hearing can be found below and a video can be found here.
Portman: “I am concerned about the delays that we have seen in Ohio and elsewhere. We have a number of veterans who have contacted us and said they weren’t able to get their medications, and there are just some heartbreaking stories. One is a 70-year-old, served in Vietnam, has COPD, has trouble breathing. The inhaler refill was mailed through the Postal Service. Due to delays, he ran out of it while waiting for it to arrive and then his insurance said, ‘You know what? We’re not going to pay for another refill to be filled because it’s already been shipped through the Postal Service.’ And he can’t afford to pay for another emergency refill personally. Let me ask you about that, particularly the veterans' medications that are shipped through the mail. Are you focused on that issue and what can we do to correct that problem?”
USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy: “Senator, first of all, we are working here feverishly to get the system running at stability and also to hire more workers to handle the delivery process and we all feel bad, you know, about what the dip in our service, the level has been. We serve 161 million people. We still deliver at 99.5 percent of the time. We have significant efforts to continue to improve on that process and everybody is working here feverishly to get that right.”
Portman: “Well I hope you will and let’s ensure these medications are delivered in time and be sure that, when the production doesn’t meet the transportation schedule, as you said earlier, that there is some efforts made to align those two because it’s a lifeline for people, all over the country, particularly in our rural areas and I thank you for your service and for the answers you gave today.”
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