Defense Health Care: Actions Needed to Assess Civilian Partnerships' Contributions to Readiness , June 4 , 2026
Defense Health Care: Actions Needed to Assess Civilian Partnerships' Contributions to Readiness , June 4 , 2026
From the report: "The Department of Defense’s (DOD) decisions to partner with civilian medical facilities to train military medical personnel for the battlefield are influenced by various factors that can support or hinder the use of partnerships, according to officials. One type of partnership that DOD can establish through an external resource sharing agreement allows active-duty providers to provide medical care to beneficiaries in civilian medical facilities within DOD’s network. Using these partnerships can reduce costs by avoiding certain professional fees and by keeping patient care within the network. However, DOD has not fully explored the benefits of increasing the use of these partnerships. Developing strategies to identify opportunities for using such agreements could ultimately help reduce costs, increase clinical readiness, and improve access to care.
The Defense Health Agency (DHA)—the combat support agency responsible for providing the necessary clinical workload to meet the military departments’ medical readiness requirements—does not know the total number of partnerships department-wide. DHA has taken some steps to inventory partnerships with civilian entities consistent with DOD policy to do so. However, these steps have been ad hoc and have not resulted in a complete or updated inventory. Without a standardized process for collecting information on partnerships for such an inventory, DHA has limited visibility of partnerships with civilian entities that can be used to provide additional readiness opportunities for its military medical personnel."
Authors - Government Accountability Office (GAO)Related Resources
