The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is closing its 189 Tricare Service Centers, including one at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, in the spring. The closings are a money saving measure, reportedly $250 million over five years. The Military Times on November 14 reported DoD officials as saying that the centers “were inefficient and customers would be better served through a toll-free telephone customer service number or online.”
TRICARE® is the health care program serving Uniformed Service members, retirees and their families worldwide.
The walk-in centers now provide face-to-face assistance with processing claims paperwork and enrolment changes. The walk-in centers’ elimination is reportedly part of the transition of the military medical system under the Defense Health Agency.
According to the Defense Health Agency’s website: “The centerpiece of Military Health System (MHS) governance reform, as outlined in the Deputy Secretary of Defense’s March 11, 2013 Memorandum “Implementation of Military Health System Governance Reform,” is the creation of a Defense Health Agency (DHA). The intent behind the transition to the DHA is to achieve greater integration of our direct and purchased health care delivery systems so that we accomplish the Department’s Quadruple Aim: achieve medical readiness, improve the health of our people, enhance the experience of care, and lower our healthcare costs. Once the new DHA is established, it will assume responsibility for shared services, functions, and activities of the MHS and other common clinical and business processes.”
A Bay Net reader was told on Friday at the Patuxent River Tricare walk-in center that they were on the list targeted for closing in the spring.
