The VA acknowledged the change in an email to a group of veterans named Disabled Vets of America, after addressing the issue on behalf of patients who have reported significant delays in recent weeks receiving medication from USPS to amid a nationwide delay, according to a copy of the correspondence checked by CNN.
“To reduce these postal delays, the VA has been forced to switch to alternative delivery services in a number of areas in the country and is taking other actions to speed up the processing and delivery of presents,” Whitehead added.
Those areas include Detroit, parts of New York and New Jersey that were identified as hotspots with delays in delivery, according to the VA email to group veterans, which was checked by CNN.
The VA “proactively converted from USPS to United Parcel Service (UPS) 2nd day air for those areas until service levels can be restored,” the email says. The department also identified a “problems with delivery services with UPS in the Arizona area and converted to Fed-Ex for roughly 5 weeks until service levels were restored with UPS,” it adds.
VA has experienced a surge in e-mail prescriptions during the coronavirus pandemic because access restrictions at facilities have prevented large numbers of patients from refilling their medications in person, a regional VA official told CNN.
However, VA spokeswoman Christina Noel told CNN that the department “has always used a variety of delivery methods to ensure timely delivery,” emphasizing that those delivered via USPS “average less than three days delivery time.”
“More than 95% of VA prescriptions delivered via UPS the next day service were on time,” she added, noting that the department “continuously monitors delivery times for prescriptions nationwide.”
The USPS did not immediately return a request for comment.
‘Just not acceptable’
Groups of veterans remain outraged by the idea that veterans are experiencing delivery delays in receiving critical medication due to the ongoing slowdown caused by new, recently implemented USPS procedures.
“It is simply unacceptable that the veterans of America, especially those who were injured or made ill in the defense of this country, should face the prospect of receiving unnecessary medications on time, seen such delays could be the difference between health and illness, or even worse, “Whitehead said.
The new procedures for the USPS were laid out in a memo earlier this month and come under the leadership of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a longtime supporter and fundraiser of Donald Trump, who stepped into his role in June.
DeJoy reversed the course Tuesday, saying all changes made to the Postal Service would be lifted until after the Nov. 3 election, just as 20 Democratic states announced plans to file federal lawsuits.
Trump has sought to shift the blame for problems of funding from the U.S. Postal Service to Democrats and has refused to acknowledge his efforts by his administration to separate the agency three months before Election Day.
He said Democrats were blocking negotiations on the next incentive package because of a disagreement over the Democrats’ proposed aid package for states that carried their coffins in fighting the pandemic.
Trump admitted in a Fox News interview last week that he was at least opposed to part of the planned infusion for emergency funds for the post office, as he believes the overhaul in e-mail moods during the pandemic Democrats will favor. In the NPR / PBS / Marist poll released last week, 62% of Joe Biden’s supporters say they plan to post their vote, while 72% of Trump supporters say they personally will vote.
During the Fox interview, Trump said Democrats want $ 25 billion for the USPS as part of the stimulus negotiations, with $ 3.5 billion focused on mail-in voting. He then reiterated his baseless assertion that voting by mail would lead to voter fraud, stating that the $ 3.5 billion would go to “something that turns out to be fraudulent.”
CNN’s Maeve Reston and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
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