“The agencies that oversee the health of U.S. military personnel and veterans were pushing ahead this spring with the biggest overhaul of their health systems in three decades. The initiatives aimed to shift up to 15 million patients to private care providers, shutter clinics and hospitals, and reduce the number of military doctors and nurses.”
“The Army, Navy and Air Force, along with the Defense Health Agency, had begun shedding patients and providers under reforms set into motion in 2017 under the National Defense Authorization Act. Veterans Affairs was due to send scores of veterans to neighborhood doctors and hospitals instead of VA facilities, also under legislation passed more than a year ago.”
“Supporters of the change called it good for patients — because they’d gain access to improved care — and for the government — because it would save millions of dollars by eliminating redundant services.”
“What no one saw coming was the novel coronavirus, which has thrown those plans into a tailspin and exposed gaps in health care for America’s service members and veterans.”
“’COVID-19 has shown the overall weakness of trying to base all of our systems on a goal of maximum efficiency,’ said Kayla Williams, an Army veteran and director of the military, veterans and society program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C. ‘When you are running on total efficiency models, you don’t have any capacity to adjust to crises.’”
“As part of the restructuring, the Department of Defense in February released a list of 50 military health facilities that would stop seeing non-active-duty patients or be downsized, reconfigured or closed. The Army, Navy and Air Force medical commands were on schedule to trim their medical billets by nearly 18,000 front-line health care workers.”
“The reform efforts coincided with a Veterans Health Administration shortage of 49,000 employees, including medical officers and nurses.”
“But the global pandemic has put those staffing shortages in stark relief — and prompted a halt to the system overhaul. Veterans and military advocates say that, with the focus on fighting COVID-19, now is not the time to pursue major changes.”
“On March 24, Defense Health Agency officials placed a 60-day hold on reform. The Pentagon plans to reassess the situation every 30 days thereafter, DHA spokesperson Kevin Dwyer said…”
“The Pentagon also decided to suspend rollout of its $5.5 billion electronic health record system, called MHS Genesis, which has been in use at six hospitals and clinics in Washington since 2017 and was introduced to four more sites in California and Idaho in September 2019…” Read the full article here.
Source: COVID-19 Brings Overhaul Of Military Health Care To A Halt – By Patricia Kime, April 15, 2020. Kaiser Health News.
