The Defense Health Agency launched the most significant change to the Military Health System in over three decades when in October it initiated the congressionally directed transfer of authority, direction, and control of military medical and dental facilities in the United States to DHA.
That set in motion plans to establish a market-based structure to manage the system’s 51 hospitals, 424 clinics and 248 dental clinics, with the first four markets coming on line in early 2020.
The DHA expects to create and certify a total of 21 large markets in major geographic areas in 2020 and stand up a management office to oversee stateside hospitals and clinics not aligned to a market such as those in rural areas or outside of major cities. In 2021, facilities in Europe and Indo-Pacific will transition into Defense Health Regions.
Dr. Barclay Butler, the DHA’s assistant director for management who heads up MTF transition planning, explained these upcoming changes at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society of Federal Health Professionals, known as AMSUS, in National Harbor, Maryland, on Dec. 4.
Read the full story at: https://health.mil/News/Articles/2019/12/05/Military-hospital-transformation-introducing-the-market-construct