Defense Health Care: Lessons Learned From DOD's Managed Health Care Initiatives
Abstract
For the past several years, DOD has been testing several healthcare initiatives aimed at controlling health care costs, improving access, and providing high quality care. The lessons learned from developing and operating these initiatives can provide useful information and insight for how DOD should best proceed in implementing managed care throughout its health care system. For example:-- To achieve equity and help achieve budgetary goals, DOD and the Congress need to work together to establish a uniform health care benefits and cost sharing package for each category of beneficiary, regardless of where beneficiaries 'live or receive their care.-- Because military health care lacks sufficient systems, incentives, and controls to encourage the delivery of efficient and cost-effective health care, improvements are needed in several areas such as accountability, budgeting and resource allocation, training, and information systems. DOD is planning several improvements in these areas.-- As contracting for health care services will probably increase because of decreases in DOD's own medical staffing, experience has shown that contracting poses challenges and risks that DOD needs to address. DOD needs to determine when contracting will and will not be appropriate. As we have previously testified, DOD should use a blend of the managed care models it has tested thus far, given that military capabilities and staffing vary considerably around the country. Also, appropriate safeguards need to be established to assure high quality and accessible care that protect beneficiaries and the government against poor contractor performance. We commend DOD for its progress to date in moving toward a managed health care environment because we continue to believe that, while not a panacea, managed care does offer the potential for gaining more control over costs, improving beneficiary access, and offering high-quality care.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 10, 1993
- Accession Number
- AD1169131
Entities
People
- David P. Baine
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office