WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC) – called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to prioritize timely delivery of lifesaving medication to veterans as U.S. Postal Service (USPS) evaluates postal reform.

 “As you continue your work, I ask that you pay special attention to the relationship between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and USPS, so that together, VA and USPS can continue and improve service to veterans across the country,” wrote Chairman Moran. “The VA mail order pharmacies provide approximately 120 million outpatient prescriptions to veterans annually, totaling nearly 89 million packages. On a typical day, more than 330,000 veterans receive a VA prescription in the mail, and USPS is responsible for delivering almost 90 percent of them.”

The letter can be found here or below.

Dear Mr. Postmaster General:

I am writing to request that as you lead the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) through a period of transformation, you ensure timely delivery of medication to the hundreds of thousands of veterans who rely on USPS every day. In your testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, you stated that you have been “fully immersed” in evaluating USPS’s business model. As you continue your work, I ask that you pay special attention to the relationship between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and USPS, so that together, VA and USPS can continue and improve service to veterans across the country. 

The VA mail order pharmacies provide approximately 120 million outpatient prescriptions to veterans annually, totaling nearly 89 million packages. On a typical day, more than 330,000 veterans receive a VA prescription in the mail, and USPS is responsible for delivering almost 90 percent of them.

VA has informed me that over the past year, its outpatient prescriptions delivered by USPS have experienced delays of nearly 25 percent, with average delivery time rising from 2.3 days in June 2019, to 2.86 days. When packages are out for delivery longer than 3 days, they go onto an Advanced Warning Report, and VA and USPS attempt to monitor their movement throughout the mail system to ascertain whether they are lost or delayed. This seems to be a necessary precaution but an imperfect solution to the overall delay issue.

There is no doubt the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged postal operations as it has so many aspects of our society. In light of the difficult environment, I urge you to remain mindful that ongoing management and operational reforms do not negatively impact important functions which VA and our veterans rely.

I ask that as operational changes are made, timely and reliable delivery to prescription drugs to veterans remain a priority.

Sincerely,

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