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The unit, part of the White House Military Office, did not
comply with federal government and Department of Defense
guidelines, the report, which was released on Jan. 8, found.
Ineligible staffers received free specialty care and surgery at
military medical facilities and were provided with prescription
drugs including controlled substances, in violation of federal
law, the report also found.
"The White House Medical Unit's pharmaceutical management
practices ineffectively used DoD funds by obtaining brand‑name
medications instead of generic equivalents and increased the
risk for the diversion of controlled substances," it said.
The unit lacked effective controls to ensure compliance with
safety standards, was not subject to oversight by Military
Health System leaders, and increased the risk to patient health
and safety, the report said.
The unit spent $46,500 from 2017-2019 on 8,900 unit doses of
Ambien, a brand name sleeping medication, which was 174 times
more than the $270 the generic equivalent would have cost for
the same amount of doses. It spent $98,000 on 4,180 unit doses
of Provigil, a brand name stimulant, 55 times more than the
$1,800 the generic equivalent would have cost, the report found.
Both drugs were disbursed without verifying patient identities.
Opioids and sleeping medications were not properly accounted for
and were tracked using error-filled or unreadable handwritten
records, the report said.
The report presents the findings of the Pentagon's Office of the
Inspector General, which investigated the unit from September
2019 through February 2020 after receiving a complaint in 2018.
It spans 2009 to 2018 and thus covers the presidential
administrations of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, but most
of its findings focus on 2017-2019 when Trump was president.
In response to the report's findings, the assistant secretary of
defense for health affairs, Lester Martinez-Lopez, sent a memo
to the Inspector General concurring with all its
recommendations.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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