TRICARE: transformation of the military health care system : demystifying military medicine and the mission impossible
Abstract
The Department of Defense's military health care system, entitled TRICARE, brings together the direct health care resources of the Department of Defense and supplements this capability through the use of managed care support services contracts and purchased care. This blended system is charged with providing a comprehensive health benefit to approximately 8.9 million beneficiaries, including active duty and retired uniformed services members, their families, and survivors, while also providing medical support to military operations. The defense health program differs in so many ways from other employer-sponsored health plans that the label itself seems inappropriate at times, as this discretionary budget program resembles more of an entitlement than a benefit. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, faced with escalating health care costs, a transition to managed care seemed like an understandable and natural response to what was then a national belief that market forces could improve health care quality and lower costs. The concept of managed competition proliferated as managed care took hold in the United States and became the cornerstone of many private and public health plans, including the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP). FEHBP has received bipartisan recognition as one of the government's more successful undertakings and a model for federal health insurance purchasing, as health care reform proposals frequently focus on expanding the FEHBP. Comparable in size to TRICARE, the FEHBP currently covers nine million active and retired federal employees and their dependents, and is the nation's largest employer-sponsored health insurance plan. Not surprisingly, some have argued the logical result would have been for the military to adopt the FEHBP as their purchased care model.
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Homeland Security Affairs Journal, Volume II - 2006: Issue 3, October
Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate SchoolCenter for Homeland Defense and Security, 2006-10);October 2006. Welcome to Volume 2, Issue Three of Homeland Security Affairs. This issue is dedicated to the memory of Lacy Suiter. I believe Lacy would be embarrassed by the idea of dedicating an issue of anything to him. ... -
The Military Health Service System: beneficiary satisfaction and an option for change
Fite, Amalie Ruth (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 1990-12);This thesis investigates several factors associated with the current military health benefit. These included: (1) beneficiary satisfaction with military as well as civilian medical treatment facilities, (2) the number of ... -
TRICARE: an organizational change study in the military health services system
Nerio, Guillermo.; O'Connor, Richard B. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 1993-12);This thesis is a qualitative analysis of the managed care approach to delivering health care in the Tidewater area of Virginia. The thesis begins with the development of civilian health care as well as the history of Navy ...