Sen. Baldwin had Tomah VA report for months

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tammy Baldwin's office received an inspection report last summer detailing high amounts of opiates prescribed at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tomah, but there is no indication her office took action on the findings until last week, when she called for an investigation after a news report revealed a veteran died from an overdose at the facility.

The report by the VA inspector general, a copy of which was obtained by USA TODAY, noted that two practitioners at the center were among the highest prescribers of opiates in a multistate region — at "considerable variance" compared with most opioid prescribers. That, the report said, raised "potentially serious concerns."

A whistleblower who learned in November that Baldwin had had a copy for months and hadn't acted, repeatedly emailed her office asking that she do something to help the veterans at the center, according to copies of the emails obtained by USA TODAY.

In them the whistleblower — former Tomah VA employee Ryan Honl — asked that Baldwin call for an investigation, that she push colleagues on the Veterans Affairs committee to take action, and that she help bring the issues in the report to public attention. The report had not been made public, but Baldwin's office received a copy in August.

When she still had not taken public action in December, Honl sent a message to her staffer with the subject line: "Final plea for Help from Senator Baldwin."

"All we ask is that our senator publicly support our desire to have an open forum rather than remain silent publicly, which is what the VA does in hiding reports from the public," Honl wrote.

Honl, a Gulf War vet and West Point graduate who left the Tomah facility in October, said in an interview Monday he believes Baldwin's inaction after receiving the report is a "travesty."

Baldwin's office declined to explain what she did between receiving the report in August and last week, when she called for an investigation after the Center for Investigative Reporting published details of the inspection report outlining opiate prescription amounts at the center and recounting the overdose death in August of a 35-year-old Marine Corps veteran while he was an inpatient.

"We are pleased that the Department of Veterans Affairs is actively reviewing allegations of retaliatory behavior and over-medication at Tomah VA, and that the Chief of Staff has been temporarily reassigned and will not be seeing patients or prescribing medication," her office said in a statement Monday.

Baldwin aides forwarded letters she wrote in April and June in response to a constituent complaint about veterans being prescribed opiates at the VA center. She asked the director of the Tomah center and the VA inspector general to investigate. Baldwin's office was briefed on the earlier IG investigation in July and got a copy Aug. 29, and provided a copy to the constituent, according to correspondence forwarded by her office.

Aides to Baldwin did not respond to multiple messages asking what the senator did in response to the inspection report she received, or how she responded to the whistleblower's emails.

According to the emails provided to USA TODAY, on Nov. 12, Honl learned about the report's existence and that a copy had been given to Baldwin's office, and so he asked for a copy in an email to Baldwin aide Mike Helbick. Honl said he received no response. Two weeks later, he obtained his own copy of the report and began urging in emails to Helbick that the senator do something.

"It is very disconcerting that a United States Senator would have been able to read the report and yet government still has allowed the Tomah leadership to ruin lives and run good doctors and physicians out of the facility," he wrote on Nov. 24.

"Do you think that's proper that a nurse practitioner … is ranked the number one prescriber of opiates out of 3,206 physicians in the (region)?"

The next day, he forwarded an article from Georgia about a vet hooked on morphine saying: "This thing is going to hit home pretty soon in Tomah. Just making you aware."

A week later, he emailed again recounting a conversation he had had with another member of Baldwin's staff who he said told him to be patient and to let the senator's staff "take your time doing something about it because there is a 'process' that must be followed." Honl said Monday the aide also told him not to talk to the press.

"My question is, how long do veterans who are addicted to opiates at the Tomah VA, that are also flooding the streets of Tomah, have to wait to receive proper treatment," he wrote Dec. 2. "When will Senator Baldwin say 'enough is enough' and push for better treatment of veterans and a better culture free of intimidation and retaliation in Tomah and VA wide for those who whistle-blow?

"Is it really going to take the media to shame Senator Baldwin and the VA to finally give veterans the proper care they deserve and employees a safe place to question leadership about unethical practices?"

On Dec. 4, Honl forwarded another article, this one about lawmakers in Minnesota calling for an investigation of a veterans' facility there. "Do you think Senator Baldwin could step up and do what (they) did in Minnesota?" he wrote. On Dec. 21, he asked Helbick again to please make the senator aware of his suggestions.

Honl said in the interview Monday that he heard nothing from her office for several weeks and was surprised when he read about her calling last week for an investigation.

The call came after the Center for Investigative Reporting reported Jan. 8 on the contents of the inspection report and that a 35-year-old former Marine, Jason Simcakoski, fatally overdosed in the Tomah VA psychiatric ward in August. He had gone to the center for help with severe anxiety and an addiction to pain killers. Doctors put him on 15 drugs, including the opioid tramadol, anti-psychotics, tranquilizers, and muscle relaxers. An autopsy report concluded the cause of death was "mixed drug toxicity," CIR reported.

"She's the only one that ever had this report," Honl said. "It is a travesty that you've got a United States senator and her staff sitting on this report."

Contact dslack@usatoday.com. Follow @donovanslack.