For many veterans, the end of active duty means the beginning of a new fight with the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs – for benefits, housing and a chance to rebuild their lives.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has asked the Pentagon to suspend taxpayer-supported tuition payments to the University of Phoenix and ban the for-profit college from military bases until an investigation into potential violations of federal law takes place.
Department of Veterans Affairs’ Deputy Inspector General Richard Griffin had been under fire for more than a year over problems at VA hospitals, including the overprescription of opiates at the Tomah, Wisconsin, facility dubbed “Candy Land.”
In 2012, President Barack Obama banned deceptive and aggressive recruiting tactics by for-profit colleges, so the University of Phoenix instead sponsors events at military bases to woo veterans – and their GI Bill money – to its educational programs.
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A congressional hearing today revealed more unexpected deaths at the Tomah, Wisconsin, VA – known as “Candy Land” for the ease with which narcotic painkillers were prescribed – during Dr. David Houlihan’s decade as the hospital’s chief of staff.
Nearly 100,000 veterans currently are receiving prescriptions for both tranquilizers and narcotic painkillers from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a potentially deadly combination that is explicitly discouraged by agency guidelines.
Our investigation disclosing skyrocketing opiate prescriptions and retaliatory management practices at a VA medical center in Wisconsin touched off a variety of federal and state government investigations.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin, notorious for its skyrocketing rate of opiate prescriptions, has contributed to dozens of tragedies that have affected people other than the veterans taking the drugs.
In this episode of Reveal, we look at the power of a single photo, a VA doctor accused of handing out opiates to veterans like “candy” and surgery patients who got screwed out of legitimate medical hardware.
Meet the “Candy Man” – the chief of staff at a VA hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin. Hospital staff members say Dr. David Houlihan “hands out narcotics like they’re candy.”
