{"id":77548,"date":"2024-01-26T16:48:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T16:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/01\/26\/white-house-medical-unit-handed-out-pills-to-ineligible-patients\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:12:25","slug":"white-house-medical-unit-handed-out-pills-to-ineligible-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2024\/01\/26\/white-house-medical-unit-handed-out-pills-to-ineligible-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"White House medical unit handed out pills to ineligible patients"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The White House Medical Unit, a military command responsible for the care of the president and other senior administration officials, has improperly handed out pills and signed off on medical care for ineligible patients for years, according to a Pentagon inspector general report released this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report, spurred by a spring 2018 IG hotline call, found \u201csevere and systemic\u201d problems with the unit\u2019s internal controls on medication and a practice of using aliases to provide free care to White House staff, as well as a complete lack of oversight from the military health system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. [X] asked if I could hook up this person with some Provigil as a parting gift for leaving the White House,\u201d one witness told the IG, referring to an anti-sleepiness medication. \u201cAnd at the time, the corpsmen and the medics … it was okay for us to dispense Provigil and Ambien without having a provider present. I\u2019m not sure if it was okay as far as, like, what\u2019s medically allowed. But in the unit, it was authorized for us to do that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most recent review covered all executive medicine clinics in the Washington, D.C. area, which serve government officials including cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices, members of Congress and senior military officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House was the only unit found to be flouting regulations and operating without oversight, to include dispensing pills \u2015 including narcotics like oxycodone and morphine \u2015 directly rather than sending patients to a pharmacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\t