Coast Guard Values DoD Cooperation in Health Care Mission

By Gabrielle Kirk
Health.mil

January 28, 2010 - Cooperation is what allows the Coast Guard to be effective in their health care program, said the Coast Guard’s chief medical officer Rear Adm. Mark Tedesco at the 2010 MHS Conference Jan. 26.

“Interoperability with individual services and with DoD Health Affairs allows us to get our work done as we need to,” said Tedesco.

With far-reaching missions including maritime safety, homeland security, drug interdiction, and humanitarian assistance, the Coast Guard’s active duty force of more than 42,000 service members relies on cooperation with the rest of the Military Health System to maintain its medical readiness.

The Coast Guard’s 42 clinics – most of which are comprised of one physician, one dentist and a physician’s assistant and support staff – are able to independently provide care only for about 60 percent of its service members. The rest receive their care through the TRICARE network and other service military treatment facilities. “Virtually all our family members, retirees, and retiree family members get their care through DoD MTFs or through the TRICARE network,” said Tedesco.

Many programs accomplish multiple goals, like the active duty dental plan, said Tedesco. He went on to call the program a “tremendous cost savings for us as well as a readiness initiative. We have many remote folks out there, and getting them their dental benefit has been a challenge and has been very expensive.”

Tedesco said the Coast Guard is working on maintaining readiness while focusing on the experience of care, per capita cost and population health.

Along with other Army, Air Force and DoD health programs that support the Coast Guard, Tedesco said that the Coast Guard is now also working with the Navy Safe Harbor wounded warrior program. Thirty-two guardsmen are currently enrolled. Tedesco also said that pilot testing of an integrated Coast Guard and VA disability evaluation system has recently begun at National Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.