Senator wants USPS to address veteran medication delays

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mt., wants to know why Veterans Affairs Department-prescribed medications are facing delays reaching veterans due to issues within the U.S. Postal Service.

The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman sent a letter Wednesday to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to inquire about how USPS is working to address a December 2023 inspector general’s report that found postal officials failed to follow policies for handling damaged packages. 

The report found that despite established protocols for returning damaged packages or disposing of them at USPS Mail Recovery Centers, postal employees told the OIG there was “no specific training” for handling the packages and that some disposed of the medications in-house. Another instance in the report mentioned that one USPS facility destroyed loose medication and delivered an empty package to the veteran. 

“It is unacceptable for the employees tasked with handling VA medication packages to be doing so without proper training or knowledge of USPS policy,” said Tester in the letter. “Veterans rely on USPS for on-time medication deliveries, so it is imperative that USPS employees around the country are in full compliance with the policies and procedures pertaining to damaged packages and loose medication.”

The senator also pointed to claims in the report that some packages were delayed because of postal officials’ inconsistent use of USPS Priority Mail Open and Distribute scans, which help track the packages.

VA pharmacy officials told the OIG that some packages didn’t receive PMOD scans, while others received multiple scans that said they were delivered, potentially leading to further package delivery delays. 

The OIG report offered three recommendations including implementing training for damaged medication packages and loose medication, establishing processes for ensuring PMOD scans and remediating duplicate scans. 

According to the OIG, USPS officials disagreed with all three recommendations, but Tester said in his letter that he wanted to know what progress the postal service has made on the recommendations. 

“For many veterans living in rural Montana, USPS is the only way to receive their VA medications, especially when the nearest VA pharmacy might be several hundred miles away,” he said. “USPS must ensure that veterans in Montana and across the country can trust that their prescription medications will make it to their door on time and unimpeded by processing errors. 

The letter comes as USPS continues to struggle with slower mail delivery across the service amid DeJoy’s 10-year Delivering for America plan to make it more efficient.

First fiscal quarter results released this week showed that on-time delivery for First-Class mail was at its lowest level since 2021.