More Than Half A Million Veterans on Opioids Face Rule Change

New rules on narcotic painkillers cause grief for veterans and the VA 
Washington Post
Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
February 18, 2015

More than half a million veterans are now on prescription opioids, according to the VA.

Craig Schroeder, shown on Feb. 6, 2015, was injured in 2006 while serving with the Marines in Iraq and suffers from traumatic brain injury and pain, for which he has been on a steady regimen of opioids.
TED RICHARDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — New federal rules that make it harder to get narcotic painkillers are taking an unexpected toll on thousands of veterans who depend on these prescription drugs to treat everything from missing limbs to post-traumatic stress.

The restrictions, adopted last summer by the Drug Enforcement Administration to curb a national epidemic of opioid abuse, are for the first time, in effect, forcing veterans to return to the doctor every month to renew their medication, although many were already struggling to get appointments at overburdened VA health facilities. And even if patients can get appointments, the new rules pose an additional hardship for many who live a good distance from the health centers.

While the tighter regulation applies to everyone on opioid painkillers, it's hitting veterans especially hard because so many are being treated for horrific injuries sustained during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and have become dependent on the VA's beleaguered health-care system for medical care.

The rules come at a time of turmoil for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency's widespread problem with patient backlogs burst into view last year with revelations that employees had covered up how long veterans had to wait for care, even for such pressing matters as cancer and suicide prevention.
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