An Analysis of Alternatives for Reducing Outpatient Military Health Care Costs for Active Duty Members and their Families: Implementing a Recommended Savings Strategy Using Defense Acquisition Principles
Abstract
Rising health care costs are placing a considerable burden on Government and Department of Defense resources. At the current rate, health care costs will likely impact the overall readiness and future force structure of the Department of Defense. In efforts to reduce or contain the costs of the military health care system, this project will propose two cost savings alternatives for providing outpatient care to active duty personnel and their dependents. In addition to analyzing the current system as an alternative (status quo), the two proposed cost-sharing alternatives are a standard co-payment and a monthly allotment program. These strategies are primarily designed to reduce Department of Defense costs by influencing the attitudes of beneficiaries toward outpatient health care, restricting their access to options with higher costs, and shifting a portion of outpatient care costs through co-payments. This project provides an in-depth analysis for each alternative using a set of assumptions for treatment possibilities based on three likely scenarios, and provides quantitative and qualitative data to arrive at a recommendation. Using acquisition principles, this project provides an implementation process for the proposed alternative that should minimize disruption in the current military health care system. This project highlights the hypothesis by implementing a cost-saving strategy to active duty and dependent outpatient care; thus, the military health care system will experience a significant cost reduction over the long run.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA475857
Entities
People
- Joshua W. Rupert
- Richardo Jaime
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School