A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine of military veterans with dementia says that letting patients use more than one system, especially outside the Department of Veterans Affairs system, can hurt patient safety because of incorrect and unsafe medication prescribing.
The study suggests that highly coordinated care is needed for prescribing safety in dementia patients.
“Recent federal policy changes to expand access to care may have unintended consequences that thwart the VA’s efforts to enhance care coordination,” the study states.
In 2006, the then-new Medicare Part D prescription-drug program widened veterans’ access to medications through non-VA systems, in which eligibility for Part D is independent of VA benefits. Later legislation further expanded veterans’ access to care outside the VA system, which brought a lot of lucrative business to for- and not-for-profit hospitals.
This seems to have created some dangerous prescription practices.
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