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 waived 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 IG’s report said, 80% of the executive medicine population in the national capital region were military retirees and members of their families.
Some…
Read the full article here
