“After a tumultuous year of pauses and reconsiderations, military hospitals and clinics are still on track to move under the management of the Defense Health Agency by the end of the year.”
“How that will effect patients of those facilities may change from the original plan though, after the military’s centralized medical administrator was forced to rethink what role private healthcare providers can play in the plan after COVID-19.”
“’We are absolutely on track to meet our timelines and that’s our expectation with us,’ Dr. Brian Lein, DHA assistant director for healthcare administration told Federal News Network.”
“The transition includes 721 MTFs and 174,000 healthcare personnel including active-duty service members, civilian employees and contractors, which provide care to 9.5 million TRICARE beneficiaries. The facilities are clustered into 21 large markets that encompass about two-thirds of patient interactions. The rest are in 16 small market regions or stand-alone hospitals and clinics (think rural areas with a large military presence).”
“Congress initiated the transition in the 2017 defense authorization bill as a means to better integrate healthcare instead of continuing the decentralized system of each military service overseeing its own MTFs…” Read the full article here.
Source: DHA set to takeover all military hospitals by end of 2021, even after transition halt during pandemic – By Scott Maucione, February 23, 2021. Federal News Network.
