Tricare Baseline Analysis of Access and Satisfaction
Published Date: December 1, 1995
The U.S. Navy Surgeon General tasked the Center for Naval Analyses to evaluate the TRICARE demonstration project. This demonstration is an attempt to coordinate health care for the medical-eligible military population of 300,000 in the Tidewater area of Virginia. When TRICARE matures, it will integrate a series of military treatment facilities, a preferred provider network, and a health maintenance organization, under joint service management. The evaluation consists of a comparison of several measures of effectiveness, before and after TRICARE implementation. We will be comparing Tidewater with two other regions: southern California, which is under CRI (a managed care program), and North Carolina, which is under standard CHAMPUS. The evaluation will take about three years to complete. In the meantime, we have collected baseline data for Tidewater and the comparison sites. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of the baseline analysis of access to, and satisfaction with, health care during the pre-implementation period. This is not an evaluation of TRICARE. The results will be helpful in interpreting subsequent changes in the components of the program after TRICARE implementation.
