May 2, 2014

On April 28, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report outlining the challenges of identifying and addressing healthcare access problems for many TRICARE beneficiaries.

GAO studied DoD’s processes, procedures, and metrics used to determine the adequacy of healthcare access for TRICARE beneficiaries using the Standard, Extra, and Reserve options.

The report found the lack of established access standards for these programs results in an under coordinated and uneven approach to assessing and addressing healthcare access issues from region to region. This leaves DoD unable to determine if the 2.2 million beneficiaries using these programs have adequate access to care.

Thie report is especially concerning in the wake of the administration’s proposal to eliminate TRICARE Prime (the proposal was rejected by a key House panel). Prime is the only option that guarantees health care access.

The GAO recommends that DoD enhance existing guidance for TRICARE Regional Offices to better assess beneficiaries’ access to care. DoD announced that they agreed with the GAO’s recommendation.

MOAA will follow the implementation of DoD’s new standards to measure healthcare access to ensure that beneficiaries have adequate access to the network.