Federal Investigation Exposes Controversial Operations In White House Pharmacy Under Trump And Obama

The White House Medical Unit has run a pharmacy that handed out both prescription and non-prescription drugs, including controlled substances, without keeping records and occasionally to individuals who were not legally entitled to receive such medications, a recent report by the U.S. Department of Defense showed.

What Happened: The report from the independent Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense found serious and systematic issues in all stages of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations under previous presidential administrations.

"The DoD OIG concluded that all phases of the White House Medical Unit's pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems due to the unit's reliance on ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards," the Office of the Inspector General said in a press release issued earlier this month.

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The 80-page report was released on Jan. 8 and summarizes the findings revealed by the federal investigation that kicked off in 2018. It reviewed records, including prescriptions, from the White House Medical Unit, issued between 2017 and 2019, during Donald Trump's presidency.

It also included more than 120 officials who gave their testimonies as part of the process. The investigators also took into account 70 interviews with former members of the White House Military Office who served in the White House between 2009 and 2018, during President Barack Obama‘s tenure.

The investigation was prompted by complaints to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense related to inadequate record keeping and overuse of brand name medications instead of more affordable generics, to name a few.

"We found that the White House Medical Unit provided a wide range of health care and pharmaceutical services to ineligible White House staff in violation of Federal law and regulation and DoD policy," the report stipulates. "Additionally, the White House Medical Unit dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff."

As part of the White House Military Office, the White House Medical Unit is in charge of taking care of the medical needs of White House staff and visitors, including the president, the vice president and their families.

Call For More Strict Policies

The Department of Defense report called for the creation of more strict policies that would prevent similar issues going forward.

"We recommend that the Director of the Defense Health Agency, in coordination with the White House Medical Unit Director, develop policy and procedures to manage controlled and non‑controlled medications, including, at a minimum, procurement, storage and inventory, prescribing and dispensing, and disposal," the report said.

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Photo: Benzinga edit of images by Alexander Grey and David Everett Strickler on Unsplash