Defense Health Care Tricare Resource Sharing Program Failing To Achieve Expected Savings Report To The Chairman And Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee On Military Personnel Committee On National Security House Of Representatives

Author : United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 38 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (64 download)

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Download or read book Defense Health Care written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Defense Department's (DOD) nationwide managed care program, called TRICARE, is intended to improve the access of military personnel and their families to health care while maintaining quality and controlling costs. DOD has entered into seven multistate managed care support contracts with civilian health care entities. Resource sharing is an important cost-saving aspect of these partnerships. To share resources, the contractor supplements the capacity of a military hospital or clinic by providing civilian personnel, equipment, and supplies. DOD estimates that resource sharing could save about $700 million over five years for these contracts. However, GAO found that DOD and the support contractors will realize only about five percent of the $700 million in projected savings. Problems impeding progress on resource-sharing agreements have included the lack of clear program policies and priorities, uncertainty about cost effects on military hospitals, lack of financial rewards for the hospitals entering into such agreements, and changes in military hospital capacities after contractors developed bids. DOD has revised policies, improved training and analytical tools, and taken other steps to promote resource sharing under the contracts, but so far these efforts have not brought needed results.