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A Message from Jonathan Woodson, M.D., Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs)

Message. A Message from Jonathan Woodson, M.D., Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs).

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A Message from Jonathan Woodson, M.D., Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs)

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  1. Message A Message from Jonathan Woodson, M.D., Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) It is an honor and a privilege to provide my first report to the Congress, since my appointment in December 2010, of our annual assessment of the effectiveness of TRICARE, the Department’s premier health care benefits program. In addition to responding to Section 717 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 1996 (Public Law 104-106), this report allows us to recount the progress of many of the strategic initiatives the Military Healthy System (MHS) has pursued to improve our performance in terms of cost, quality, and access. These initiatives support the Quadruple Aim strategy we began in the fall of 2009, focusing on the primacy of Readiness, and continuous efforts to improve our population’s health and our beneficiaries’ experience of care, while managing per capita costs. TRICARE already meets or exceeds most of the new health care provisions that took effect September 23, 2010, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The PPACA provides new or expanded options and consumer protections for those with private health insurance coverage. Most provisions under PPACA, such as restrictions on annual limits, lifetime maximums, “high user” cancellations, or denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, have not been a concern for the over 9.6 million Active Duty military and retiree families under TRICARE. Because TRICARE is an entitlement provided for by law, TRICARE’s coverage has no lifetime cap. Under the basic entitlement, TRICARE costs are determined by legislation, and in general, Active Duty families and military retirees pay low, or no, annual or monthly fees, unlike coverage under most commercial health insurance plans. There is no cost for medical care for Active Duty Service members. One provision under PPACA that was not already addressed in the FY 2010 TRICARE entitlement was coverage for dependents up to the age of 26. The recent PPACA requires civilian health plans that provide medical coverage to children to make that coverage available until the child turns 26 years of age. TRICARE’s age limit for dependent children was 21, or age 23 if the dependent child is a full time college student or has been determined to be incapable of self-support. The recently signed NDAA for FY 2011 includes a provision that extends dependent medical coverage up to age 26. Beginning later in the spring of FY 2011, qualified dependents up to age 26 will be able to purchase TRICARE coverage on a month-to-month basis. See http://www.tricare.mil/tya for more information. This report presents the results of many of the established and evolving measures senior MHS leadership follows to assess the performance of the $50 billion MHS, serving more than 9.6 million beneficiaries worldwide in meeting operational and humanitarian mission requirements consistent with our strategic vision, strategy, and goals. In this report, where programs are mature, and data permit, results are trended over the most recent three fiscal years; and where appropriate and feasible, MHS data are compared with corresponding comparable civilian benchmarks, such as with our beneficiary surveys of access to and satisfaction with the experience of care. — Jonathan Woodson, M.D. 2
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