Next phase of military hospital consolidation set to begin Oct. 1

  • Published
  • By Lauren Russell
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Effective Oct. 1, Air Force, Army and Navy medical treatment facilities will enter the final transition phase to shift administration and management of their medical facilities to the Defense Health Agency.

For members of the Hanscom community, clinic officials say the new policy will not affect the level of care beneficiaries are receiving, but will improve that care by enabling changes to improve access, and overall patient experiences over time.

“It’s our hope that we’ll be able to provide more efficient medical care due to the standardization across the Department of Defense,” said Col. Mark Oordt, 66th MDS commander. “Beyond that, the changes will be virtually invisible to the patients.”

The DHA will be solely responsible for health care delivery and business operations across the Military Health System, including budgets, information technology, health care administration and management, administrative policies and procedures and military medical construction.

The change was directed by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017. According to an article published on afmc.mil, congress mandated that a single agency be responsible for the administration and management of all military hospitals and clinics as well as improve beneficiaries’ access to care and eliminate redundancies in medical costs and overhead across three separate service-run systems.

Beyond the congressional mandate, Vice Adm. Raquel Bono, DHA director, said “it’s the right thing to do.”

"We have more than 40 years of independent studies and internal reviews that demonstrate the current structure of the Military Health System is unsustainable," she said. “The transformational changes underway will improve that focus, support the DOD's priority for a more lethal force and improve our ability to deliver high quality health care to all of our beneficiaries. Improving medical readiness is the key driver of the overall effort."

Beginning Oct. 1 of this year and continuing through October 2021, the two-year transition will focus on four primary objectives: centralize administration and management; establish health care markets; establish small market and stand-alone military treatment facility organization; and establish defense health regions overseas.

Oordt is confident the consolidation will result in better patient care.  

“Although it’s a major transformation and there will be a transition period that goes with it, I think this will be better for our beneficiaries as well as the Air Force medical services as a whole,” he said.  

Bono said that, from a patient perspective, these changes should be transparent.

“Our patients expect the same high-quality care regardless of who is in charge,” she said. “Doctors, nurses and technicians will continue to focus on practicing medicine and improving their skills and readiness. In the end, this really is about the patient - integrating into one system will improve readiness for our medical professionals and result in better care and better health outcomes for our patients.”

For more on the DoD's medical reorganization, go to the military health web site at the MHS Transformation web page for fact sheets, an informational video and more articles.