DoD: Tricare beneficiaries should go to MTFs - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

DoD: Tricare beneficiaries should go to MTFs

The Pentagon wants more Tricare beneficiaries to get their health care at military hospitals and clinics.

Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, recently said that the Defense Department would see vast cost savings if Tricare Prime beneficiaries exclusively use military treatment facilities — known in the health care industry as “direct care” because patients are treated by clinicians, including military physicians or civilian contractors hired directly by the department.

“Purchased care” describes health care received at a Tricare-authorized provider, by Tricare Prime patients referred to civilian providers as well as Tricare Standard, Extra and Remote beneficiaries.

A Pentagon task force estimated that eliminating purchased care contracts within Tricare altogether would save the system $16.4 billion, Woodson said.

“Our major opportunities for cost control lie within optimizing the use of the purchased and direct care systems to manage the care delivered to our beneficiaries. Comprehensive strategies will be established to address these issues in our multi-service markets,” Woodson said.

About 4.5 million of 7.7 million Tricare Prime-eligible beneficiaries use military treatment facilities, he said.

The military health system operates 59 hospitals and 364 medical clinics worldwide. Woodson provided little details on the strategic plan, including whether the military health care system would need to add facilities to accommodate the additional patients.

He did say that DoD plans to expand patient enrollment in the medical-home system of care, which promotes preventive services and reduces emergency room visits and hospitalization, and embark on aggressive anti-tobacco and anti-obesity campaigns to reduce medical visits for illnesses and diseases caused by these conditions.

The Army, Air Force and Navy surgeons general will testify Feb. 8 before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee to discuss the future of military health care, including whether the Pentagon should create a unified medical command to oversee all military health care.

Woodson said in his speech at the recent Military Health Systems conference that creating a unified command with a goal of reducing management overhead would not result in significant cost savings. For example, he said, an internal Pentagon review estimates that eliminating the DoD office of health affairs and the headquarters of the Tricare Management Activity would save only $312 million.

“While some of you may applaud such an idea … it hardly makes a dent in our overall budget,” Woodson said.

The Pentagon’s annual medical budget now tops $50 billion.