VA/DOD Health Care

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Veterans Administration's (VA) and the Department of Defense's (DOD) implementation of legislation to promote their sharing of health care resources, to determine: (1) whether the two agencies took full advantage of opportunities to share their resources; (2) the adequacy of current incentives to share resources; (3) whether there were any barriers to their sharing arrangements; and (4) whether administrative or legislative changes could further encourage sharing.

GAO found that: (1) VA and DOD made significant progress in sharing their health care resources; (2) as of September 1986, the agencies had entered into 240 agreements; (3) although the agencies did not estimate cost reductions resulting from the agreements, both VA and DOD data indicated that reductions occurred; (4) local hospitals believe that the sharing agreements provide patients with better access to health care; and (5) VA and the Air Force developed agreements for the joint use of hospitals, which could serve as models for other federal facilities. GAO also found that: (1) the high reimbursement rates at VA medical centers discouraged many military hospitals from sharing their health care services with VA; (2) DOD reimbursement procedures did not provide sharing incentives; (3) the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rejected a VA proposal to allow DOD dependents to be treated under sharing agreements; and (4) congressional and DOD restrictions on the use of Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) funds have limited DOD use of nearby medical centers.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: