United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-07-14 monographic deposited born digital 18 p. GA 1.13:HEHS-00-137 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-137 P0b002ee180385ac3 f:he00137 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-137 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-137 HEHS-00-137 Military hospitals Health services administration Health care programs Department of Defense contractors Customer service Beneficiaries Health care facilities Standards and standardization Centralization DOD TRICARE Program Letter Report HEHS Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on TRICARE centralized appointment scheduling, focusing on the: (1) proportion of appointments scheduled by TRICARE contractors for beneficiaries in the four TRICARE regions with centralized systems; and (2) factors that affect the contractors' ability to schedule appointments.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) contractors scheduled only about one quarter of the appointments during November 1999 in the four regions where TRICARE contractors have appointment-making responsibility; (2) the percentage of appointments scheduled by the contractors varied among the regions, ranging from about 17 percent to about 63 percent; (3) in general, contractors scheduled a higher percentage of appointments for clinics that provide primary care services (42 percent) than for clinics providing specialty care, such as dermatology, cardiology, and orthopedics (17 percent); (4) in the four regions, the Department of Defense (DOD) and its military treatment facilities (MTF) have restricted the types and number of appointments available to the contractors for scheduling; (5) some MTF physicians and other professional staff told GAO that they want to retain control over the appointing process because they do not trust contractors to accurately schedule appointments and to ensure that any medical instructions can be provided prior to the visit, such as instructions about fasting; (6) when comparing like clinics within different MTFs the percentage of appointments scheduled by contractors varies substantially, suggesting that physicians' and other staff's desire to retain appointment control may be the driving factor, rather than the need to provide medical instructions; (7) when contractors do not have access to appointments because of DOD and MTF restrictions, beneficiaries requesting appointments from contractors may be transferred from the appointment center to the MTF clinic, or told to call MTF clinics themselves; (8) thus, what was meant to be a simplified, more user-friendly appointment process is now a complex and confusing process in which beneficiaries are unsure whether to call the contractor or the MTF to schedule appointments; (9) to improve its appointment system, DOD is in the process of reducing and standardizing the number of appointment types and names used throughout the military health care system; (10) currently thousands of appointment types and names are used; and (11) although reduction and standardization could simplify the appointment-making process, until DOD decides on and implements a more uniform process for making appointments, there will continue to be differences in how beneficiaries access the military health care system. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-137/html/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-137.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-137/pdf/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-137.pdf GAO/HEHS-00-137 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-137 Letter Report GAO/HEHS-00-137; Military Health Care: Factors Affecting Contractors'; Military hospitals Health services administration Health care programs Department of Defense contractors Customer service Beneficiaries Health care facilities Standards and standardization Centralization DOD TRICARE Program