Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says he’s still seeking answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal agencies about opioid prescriptions and a culture of retaliation at the Tomah VA Hospital.
As chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he released his own update on the situation this week.
According to the report, VA pharmacists from outside of Tomah warned the department that the medical center was at risk of losing its federal controlled substance license due to questionable prescription practices. That information was not included in a VA report released last year.
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Johnson is also seeking more information from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Department of Justice on drug diversion investigations at the Tomah VA and throughout the system. He accuses the VA Inspector General’s Office of withholding information.
“You have to hold people accountable, it’s the only way you can reform an organization,” Johnson said. “In a bureaucracy, the only way you’re going to reform a bureaucracy is the public needs to understand, you have to shine some light on the problems to create the public pressure to reform.”
Johnson and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama, calling on him to nominate a full-time VA inspector general.
The VA’s Office of Inspector General was not able to comment at this time.
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