Defense Health Care: DoD Should Collect and Use Key Information to Make Decisions about Incentives for Physicians and Dentists

Abstract

DOD spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually to recruit, educate, train, and retain military physicians and dentists. Despite this, DOD has had trouble meeting its needs for certain critical specialists, in part because it pays less than the private sector. In 2017, the maximum a military physician or dentist could earn was less than the private sector median in 21 of 27 specialties we reviewed. To help inform future decisions about the size and types of incentives to offer, we recommend that DOD collect information on the cost to replace current personnel, acceptance rates for retention bonuses, and private sector wages.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1152416

Entities

People

  • Brenda S. Farrell

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Management Personnel
  • Medical Personnel
  • Medical Specialties
  • Military Hospitals
  • Military Medicine
  • Military Personnel
  • Money
  • Organizational Structure
  • Patient Care
  • Personnel Management
  • Physicians
  • Students
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Naval Personnel Management
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting