VA's Pharmacy Services to Nonhospitalized Veterans

In a 1977 report to the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the Veterans Administration (VA) opposed proposed legislation concerning changes in pharmacy service to nonhospitalized veterans, because its method of dispensing drugs to these patients was satisfactory and economical, and the enactment of this legislation would increase the cost of providing such drugs and medicines over a 5-year period to more than $135 million for fee-basis prescriptions and more than $851 million if all outpatient prescriptions were included. VA estimated that all future prescriptions would be filled by private pharmacies, and that the prescription volume would increase 17 percent each year.