Heritage Was Invited By House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health To Submit A Statement

COPPELL, Texas, July 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 19^th, the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health (Subcommittee) held a hearing entitled "Mission Readiness:  VA's Emergency Response and Pharmaceutical Cache Program".  An additional focus of the hearing related to the emergency preparedness of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the case of extreme weather events.  As part of this hearing and given their years of experience, Heritage Health Solutions (Heritage) was invited by the leadership of the Subcommittee to submit a statement for the hearing record.

"We were honored to be asked by the Subcommittee to submit a statement for the hearing record outlining our work assisting the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans in times of crisis.  Heritage has more than a decade of experience providing first and emergent pharmacy services to the VA and veterans. Since 2005, Heritage has provided the VA with a cost effective solution to ensure that veterans have access to urgent and emergent medications when a VA pharmacy is unable to fill a prescription.  As part of our work with the VA, Heritage has developed a disaster response plan that provides the framework and serves as a nationwide model to ensure veterans impacted by natural or other disasters can continue to receive their medications," said Tonya Clark, CEO of Heritage Health Solutions.

Often, during a natural disaster, veterans are displaced from their homes and are unable to access a VA pharmacy or receive necessary medications from the VA mail order system.  It is not uncommon that veterans are forced to quickly evacuate their homes, and they often leave without an adequate supply of medication.  Furthermore, when veterans are displaced from their homes for an extended period of time because the natural disaster prevents them from getting back to their homes, they are unable to rely on VA's mail order system for their prescription re-fills. 

Under these circumstances, it is important that a process be in place to provide veterans with a seamless system to help identify what medications are needed and ensure veterans can gain access to emergent medications such as insulin, inhalers, and antibiotics.  Utilizing the Heritage disaster response plan allows the VA to ensure that veterans have access to their VA authorized prescriptions at a retail pharmacy during the disaster response. 

In recent years, Heritage has assisted the VA in responding to numerous natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires and flooding. 

"We are honored to have the privilege of working with the VA to assist veterans everyday and also in their time of need due to a natural disaster.  We are well aware of how disruptive and damaging natural disasters can be for those impacted by them, and we are grateful to be a small part of the efforts to assist veterans in the aftermath," Clark said.

Heritage is the premier health care integrator providing prescription drug and medical solutions located in Coppell, Texas. 

SOURCE Heritage Health Solutions, Inc.