Transformation underway across the Military Health System

Thomas McCaffery, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, met with Lt. Gen. Michael Tempel, Bundeswehr Surgeon General of the unified armed forces of Germany, to reaffirm our partnership to enhance interoperability, share knowledge and best practices, and deepen the integration of the two great medical systems. (MHS photo by Military Heath System Strategic Communications Division)

Deploying a New Electronic Health Record

As the MHS embarks on unprecedented reforms, we are utilizing new tools to position us for a successful future. We continue to deploy MHS GENESIS, the new EHR for the military, which will provide enhanced, secure technology to manage health—connecting medical and dental information across the continuum of care, from point of injury to the MTF. MHS GENESIS will replace our legacy systems, which lack the capability to support the delivery of modern, integrated health care. We are scheduled to roll out the next wave in the fall of 2019, with the system-wide completion targeted for calendar year 2023.

The DoD purposefully deployed MHS GENESIS in four initial sites to identify and address lessons learned from initial implementation and utilize those experiences and best practices to inform the next wave of MHS GENESIS sites. We are seeing MHS GENESIS enable easier monitoring and response to patient health through an enhanced set of tools: data reporting and tracking capabilities, improved analytics, computer-aided decision support and a user-friendly patient portal. We’ve seen significant improvements in the four initial MHS GENESIS sites: a substantial decrease in the percentage of emergency-department patients who left without being seen; patient risk-alert systems leading to enhanced clinical decision making; and an avoidance of tens of thousands of duplicate lab tests. Like our broader transformation plans, at the heart of these efforts is a concerted push toward standardization, integration and readiness – and we are moving in the right direction.

TRICARE Enhancements

What do these major organizational changes mean for our beneficiaries? Our ultimate goal is to enhance the quality of care and improve access to health care for all our beneficiaries –making an already strong MHS even better. Alongside the MHS transformation come a number of ongoing enhancements to the TRICARE Health Plan. Over the last year alone, we have kicked off new TRICARE contracts for managed care through our civilian networks, which is more convenient for our beneficiaries when they move, reduces administrative costs, and requires our managed-care support contractors to provide broader access to primary and specialty-care networks. We also rolled out the new TRICARE SelectStarting on January 1, 2018, TRICARE Select replaces TRICARE Standard and Extra. TRICARE Select is a self-managed, preferred provider network plan. TRICARE Select is a fee-for-service option in the United States that allows you to get care from any TRICARE-authorized provider.  Enrollment is required to participate. TRICARE Select benefit and implemented a series of enhancements for TRICARE beneficiaries, including expanded access to preventive care, urgent care and mental-health services.

From November 12 through December 10, 2018, TRICARE held its first Open Season enrollment period, the annual period when beneficiaries can make changes to their plan for the following calendar year. Also, we replaced the TRICARE Retiree Dental Program effective December 31, 2018, and now offer our 3.3 million retirees dental coverage through the Federal Employee Dental and Vision Insurance Program, or FEDVIP. Most beneficiaries are also now eligible for vision coverage – something DoD has never offered before. With 10 dental and four vision carriers, FEDVIP provides greater choice and scalability for 4.1 million eligible beneficiaries. 

Bringing it all together: what we seek to achieve

The major initiatives underway within the MHS are important steps in answering the call of DoD Secretary Jim Mattis to focus on three lines of effort to execute the National Defense Strategy: enhancing lethality, expanding alliances and partnerships and reforming the way we do business. Secretary Mattis’s call for business reforms is aimed, in his words, at “greater performance and accountability.” Our MHS reforms and the deployment of MHS GENESIS are setting us up to better support medical-readiness requirements and health-care delivery through integration and efficiency. These efforts help lower our costs, working to ensure the department has the resources to sustain the health benefits on which our Service members, retirees and their families depend.

Ultimately, all of these changes – the Military Health System transformation, MHS GENESIS, TRICARE enhancements – are aimed at taking the DoD’s health enterprise to the next level. Amidst these changes, we remain steadfast in our commitment to support readiness, both for our combat forces and for medical personnel. We are committed to meeting the evolving needs of today’s warfighter, and we will continue to deliver the highest quality health care for our 9.5 million active duty, retiree and family members who play such a critical role in keeping our country safe and secure. Our Service members and beneficiaries deserve nothing less.