My 94-year-old father was recently approved for full aid and attendance for full amount. He was WW 2 and Korean War Vet who has never used any other va benefits. He has RR medicare and a supplement today received letter from VA asking if he wanted to apply for outpatient treatment or drugs or medicines. Would he be able to keep his current primary or just get medications? He lives in assisted living and is getting very difficult to transfer to take out the Dr. Does anyone have any experience how this works? Lived in northern Kentucky not far from Cincinnati. All his medications have to be packaged in individual shrink wrapped to dispense so he isn't able to use the mail order benefit with his RR medicare.
She was a good doctor, concerned but she took the liberty of substituting meds. One was a cardiac med which our treating cardiologist absolutely did not want to be used for my father's treatment. The VA refused to accept a return and insisted on payment for drugs which we couldn't use.
That was when I switched back to pharmacies I chose, which would fill the scripts as the doctors wrote them.
Even if he's in AL, he doesn't need to go out to get the scripts, as most everyone I've encountered in the last several years (except rehabs) use electronic prescriptions. Assuming you're near him, you could just pick them up for him, or perhaps the pharmacy has a delivery service.
But think seriously about the fact that a private doctor may prescribe something but the VA PCP might change it to a different med.