Tidewater TriCare: An Analysis of Beneficiary Access and Satisfaction
Published Date: March 1, 1996
As medical care in the civilian sector is moving toward managed care, so it is in the military. The Office of the Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) has sponsored a series of demonstration projects - limited implementations of health care management programs. One such program is TriCare, in the Tidewater area of Virginia. The project, which began in late 1992, was to have two major changes in the financing and delivery of health care. The program included three options for beneficiaries: Prime (an HMO), Extra (a preferred provider organization) and Standard (the standard CHAMPUS) option. The purpose of this research memorandum is to present the findings from our analysis of changes in the levels of access and satisfaction with military-sponsored medical care. The analysis is based on data we collected for an evaluation of the TriCare demonstrations project in Tidewater, Virginia.
