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In Reversal, Defense Department Now Wants to Bring Tricare Beneficiaries Back to Military Health System

Military.com By Patricia Kime

The Defense Department is doing an about-face on a major component of reforms itlaunched seven years ago to reduce medical care costs, abandoning a plan to push familymembers and military retirees to private-sector care.

In a memo sent last month to senior Pentagon leaders, Deputy Defense SecretaryKathleen Hicks outlined an effort to "re-attract" benefi ciaries to military hospitals andclinics -- at least 7% of those now receiving medical care through Tricare, the DoD's privatehealth program, by Dec. 31, 2026.

Hicks said certain elements of the DoD's health system overhaul, which was mandated by Congress in 2017, have left military treatment facilities, or MTFs, "chronically understaffed" and unable to deliver timely care to all patients.

The goal for the new plan would be to review current staffing and potentially shift providers among facilities, or add new personnel as needed in order to provide improved access to care and bring back patients, according to the memo, provided Monday to Military.com by request.

In the memo, Hicks said the circumstances at military hospitals have not only affected beneficiaries, they have hindered providers, depriving them of opportunities to maintain their skills.

"Realignment of medical personnel, coupled with a challenging health care economy and ambitious private-sector care capacity assumptions, led to chronically understaffed [military treatment facilities] and [dental treatment facilities, or DTFs] that at times cannot deliver timely care to beneficiaries or ensure sufficient workload to maintain and sustain clinical skills," Hicks wrote.

To continue reading the rest of the article you will need to visit Military.com...

SOURCE - Lead in from Military.com email

 

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