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Interesting results from study running simulation for quality/safety as it relates to shifting beneficiary medical care to the civilian sector.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Notable excerpt from the discussion section:
"Critics have alleged that the MHS’s US operations cost too much, deliver an uneven
quality-of-care, and do not attract enough complex cases or sufficient volume to maintain the
skills that active-duty providers need to serve on deployment. Nevertheless, available
evidence suggests that limiting access to MTFs could decrease the quality-of-care for active-duty
service members, their families, and military retirees. Repeated assessments of systemic and
hospital quality by the US government and American College of Surgeons point toward
comparable performance between the MHS and some of the country’s top health-systems.
They indicate that Direct Care MTFs are among the best performing surgical hospitals in the
US—a finding with which our results agreed. Prior studies of MHS patients have further
documented a lack of racial disparities seldom found in the civilian sector revealed that for
select conditions MHS patients treated by military doctors underwent fewer procedures but
experienced better outcomes, and highlighted potential concerns that forcibly shifting MHS
beneficiaries from Direct into Purchased Care could result in decreased efficiency and
uncertain cost savings."
In defense of Direct Care: Limiting access to military hospitals could worsen quality and safety - PubMed
Reducing access to MTFs could result in significant harm to MHS patients. The results underscore the importance of health-policy planning based on evidence-based evaluation and the need to consider the consequential downstream effects caused by changes in access to care.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Notable excerpt from the discussion section:
"Critics have alleged that the MHS’s US operations cost too much, deliver an uneven
quality-of-care, and do not attract enough complex cases or sufficient volume to maintain the
skills that active-duty providers need to serve on deployment. Nevertheless, available
evidence suggests that limiting access to MTFs could decrease the quality-of-care for active-duty
service members, their families, and military retirees. Repeated assessments of systemic and
hospital quality by the US government and American College of Surgeons point toward
comparable performance between the MHS and some of the country’s top health-systems.
They indicate that Direct Care MTFs are among the best performing surgical hospitals in the
US—a finding with which our results agreed. Prior studies of MHS patients have further
documented a lack of racial disparities seldom found in the civilian sector revealed that for
select conditions MHS patients treated by military doctors underwent fewer procedures but
experienced better outcomes, and highlighted potential concerns that forcibly shifting MHS
beneficiaries from Direct into Purchased Care could result in decreased efficiency and
uncertain cost savings."
