TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS) provides certain members of theSelected Reserve - reservists considered essential to wartimemissions - with the ability to purchase health care coverage under the Department of Defense's (DoD) TRICARE program after their active duty coverage expires. TRS is similar to TRICARE Standard, a fee-for-service option, and TRICARE Extra, a preferred provider option. This report examines: (1) how DoD ensures that members of the Selected Reserve are informed about TRS; and (2) how DoD monitors and evaluates access to civilian providers for TRS beneficiaries. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find report.

TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS) provides certain members of the Selected Reserve, reservists considered essential to wartime missions, with the ability to purchase health care coverage under the Department of Defense's (DOD) TRICARE program after their active duty coverage expires. TRS is similar to TRICARE Standard, a fee-for service option, and TRICARE Extra, a preferred provider option. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 directed GAO to review TRS education and access to care for TRS beneficiaries. This report examines (1) how DOD ensures that members of the Selected Reserve are informed about TRS and (2) how DOD monitors and evaluates access to civilian providers for TRS beneficiaries. GAO reviewed and analyzed documents and evaluated an analysis of claims conducted by DOD. GAO also interviewed officials with the TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), the DOD entity responsible for managing TRICARE; the regional TRICARE contractors; the Office of Reserve Affairs; and the seven reserve components. GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs to develop a policy requiring each reserve component to designate a centralized point of contact for TRS education. DOD partially concurred with this recommendation, citing a concern about regional coordination. GAO modified the recommendation.

Defense Health Care: DOD Lacks Assurance That Selected Reserve Members Are Informed about TRICARE Reserve Select

Nearly 1.9 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since October 2001. Many service members and veterans face serious challenges in readjusting to normal life after returning home. This initial book presents findings on the most critical challenges, and lays out the blueprint for the second phase of the study to determine how best to meet the needs of returning troops and their families.

Winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize in American History, this is a landmark history of how the entire American health care system of doctors, hospitals, health plans, and government programs has evolved over the last two centuries. "The definitive social history of the medical profession in America....A monumental achievement."—H. Jack Geiger, M.D., New York Times Book Review

The report examines the cultural characteristics, primary institutional goals, and competitive strategies exhibited by the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and U.S. Special Operations Command.

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