VA Health Care: Efforts to Increase Sharing with DOD and the
Private Sector. Testimony, 10/18/95, GAO/T-HEHS-96-41.

GAO discussed the status and future direction of the Department of
Veterans Affairs' (VA) health care resources sharing agreements with the
Department of Defense (DOD) and the private sector. GAO noted that: (1)
Congress has broadened the types of services, beneficiaries, and
providers covered under VA sharing agreements, eased burdensome
reimbursement provisions, and allowed providing facilities to retain
funds from shared services; (2) the number of VA sharing agreements with
DOD facilities has increased from 12 in 1983 to 147 in 1995; (3) it is
difficult to quantify the monetary benefits of these sharing agreements,
since VA and DOD reports do not contain data on the extent to which
sharing agreements are used; (4) the recent expansion of VA sharing to
Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services
beneficiaries, the participation of VA facilities under the DOD TRICARE
program, and the proposed expansion of VA private-sector sharing are
creating challenges for VA; and (5) VA is implementing a decision
support system that will enable it to generate itemized health care
bills and monitor the quality and quantity of care provided at its
facilities.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-HEHS-96-41
     TITLE:  VA Health Care: Efforts to Increase Sharing with DOD and 
             the Private Sector
      DATE:  10/18/95
   SUBJECT:  Quality assurance
             Veterans hospitals
             Health care services
             Health resources utilization
             Veterans benefits
             Billing procedures
             Data integrity
             Health care programs
             Health care cost control
             Interagency relations
IDENTIFIER:  Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed 
             Services
             CHAMPUS
             DOD TRICARE Program
             DOD TRICARE Extra Program
             DOD TRICARE Prime Program
             Veterans Reconciliation Act of 1995
             VA Decision Support System
             
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