New Va Pain Medication Policy

[Vync]

Agree. Tramadol sucks and is basically useless. I have been having trouble getting the VA to even refill my pain medications lately.

[rpowell01]

There is Tramadol Extended Release which is potent like Oxycodone. Actually if you take any opioids like Oxycodone regular Tramadol is useless for you after you quit taking the opioids. But Tramadol Extended Release comes in 100mg and 200mg and you only take them twice a day.

 

I'm down to 2 Oxycodones a day and asked my VA PCP to fill me a prescription of Tramadol Extended Release but guess what, its not in the VA Formulary. Oh I went off on my VA PCP about this stating I guess the VA thinks $$$ is more important than a veteran's life. Look folks we have to start pressing our Congressmen to hammer the VA on these medication policies. The VA uses a formulary and only provides CERTAIN medications is BS!!!! I think I might create a website just dedicated to the VA's formulary medication list because this is just plain awful. What is their reasoning for not providing certain meds to veterans whenever they need them. Heck they will provide "experimental" meds!!! Whenever my Korean War Step-Dad was dying because a VA nurse kept giving him water, after my mother told her NOT to, then he aspirated on the water, basically drowning in the VA Nurse gave me through straw, a VA MD wanted to try an experimental drug. Guess what, he is in the "Six Feet Under Club"...Thank you VA!!!!

[rpowell01]

BTW get away from the VA if you can. Let them provide you whatever meds you can get. They MUST, this is the VA policy and the LAW, they must, I say this again, they MUST provide you, free of service, medications for ANY service connected issues. So, if your private doctor prescribe you Percocet, the VA MUST fill that medication if you give your VA MD a copy of the prescription or a copy of the prescription on the bottle. Do not let them tell you otherwise. If they deny this to you go to Patient Advocates for your area, or call them, and file a complaint.

Again they CANNOT deny you medication for your service connected issues.

 

If you have medicare or insurance, get away from the VA, fast!!! They are killing veterans, left and right. They had me on 3600mg of Gabapentin and my VA PCP would not switch me to Lyrica whenever I requested him to. Do you know why he wouldn't switch me to Lyrica? Because of the big $$$$$$!!!!! So I went to my private PCP and he switched me. He told me to wean off  the Gabapentin. Heck I didn't even have to wean off it. Whenever I quit taking that stuff I came out of a big time FOG. It felt like I was in the dark with that crap. The VA hires the cheapest pharmaceutical to provide the cheapest medication or Gabapentin to veterans. I bet you a whole paycheck they contract with pharms companies in other countries like Mexico. Anyway, after I came out of the fog and dark cloud I was in the Lyrica 300mg a day works freaking GREAT!!!! With medicare I only pay $40 a month. I am going to file a complaint with the Patient Advocates Office whenever I go up there about this because I was getting dehydrated and the Gabapentin was not helping. There is not reason or its nonsense for them, the VA, to prescribe me that much Gabapentin whenever Lyrica is on their crappy formulary list. This is why I FIRED the VA. I am only going to see my VA PCP twice a year and let them fill my service connection medications. I told him this and I told him the VA is fired. I bet he laughed at this. I am sick of the VA's lack of respect for veterans. They are only there to get a paycheck and federal retirement.

Edited October 12, 2015 by rpowell01

[Vync]

The VA can prescribe special medications, but they typically require they be prescribed by a specialist.

Additionally, some primary care docs are fine prescribing medications in pill form, but hesitate to prescribe them in injectors even though the pharmacy said they can do it. Instead, they refer me off to a specialist and it will be ages before I get in to see them.

[Chuck75]

A great deal of the problem has to do with the "one size fits all" attitude of the VA and other governmental entities. That aside - - -

A remark made by another poster is partially correct. The VA does have a limited responsibility under one of the laws passed in the last few years to provide prescription drugs when an outside treating physician is involved. (Millennium Act?) The problem is that the law also says that a VA physician or primary care provider must approve, making the now VA prescription actually issued by the VA, not the outside provider. Further, the VA often changes the prescription to a substitute, and does not consult the outside  treating physician, who may very well be a board certified specialist. While there might be some justification for supervision, and outside pharmacists usually take care to provide a usually appropriate level, it seems that this general idea is carried to excessive lengths by the VA. 

I'd love to see a situation where a class action suit over drug substitutes gets started. The VA is obligated by law to provide proper treatment to veterans. Nowhere in the laws that I've read concerning this is a provision to provide less effective treatment due to lower or lowest cost a VA option. Yet, it seems to be an everyday thing. (A lesson from the insurances companies the VA has taken to heart!)

My personal experience with this involved a board certified interventional cardiologist, and a VA PCP. The PCP and/ or the VA Pharmacist without consultation, changed a couple of the original prescriptions that are on the VA pharmacopoeia to a less effective and lower cost alternative. I ended up talking to the originating specialist myself over the substitutions,  then where necessary, going back to the VA PCP. He then changed the prescriptions back. The VA Pharmacist was a bit harder to deal with. I ended up in writing, showing that the VA pharmacy was not following the rules and regulations that they are required to live by. This also  involved the nefarious "pill splitting" practices that  the VA often forces on veterans, without following the correct process to do so. (And, takes advantage of veterans that must pay Co-Pay by not sharing any of the savings, and instead, charging full co-pay for 30 1/2 tablets)

Edited November 30, 2015 by Chuck75

[Vync]

Chuck,
You make really good points. I was doing great when given some "real" medications, but when they switched to generic versions, they do not work so well. I agree completely with you on pill splitters. Half the medications given by the VA do not split perfectly and some actually crumble.

I finally got an appointment with my new VA PCP the other day, but they also are refusing to give me pain medication. They are passing the buck to neurology which means a few months before I can get in to see them... So much for the VA's Patient Bill of Rights which says we have the right to receive treatment for our pain...