50% of U.S. navy bases are in a well being care desert, NPR probe finds : NPR
An ongoing NPR investigation into navy well being care reveals that 4 out of 10 U.S. navy bases are positioned inside a federally designated well being care desert.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The U.S. navy has its personal healthcare system for troops and their households. NPR has been reporting this 12 months about how the Pentagon has tried to outsource a lot of that care to civilian suppliers. However an NPR investigation discovered 50% of U.S. navy bases are positioned inside what’s known as a federally designated well being skilled scarcity space. Principally, a well being care desert – NPR’s Quil Lawrence is right here to clarify. Quil, so how did you come to that conclusion and that statistic, 50%?
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Yeah, so annually the federal government identifies these nationwide, the place the healthcare is tough to seek out. And together with NPR’s Brent Jones, we mapped these so-called well being care deserts for major care, psychological well being care and maternity care, after which we simply put that map on prime of a map of all of the navy bases within the U.S. And what we discovered is that half of the Military, Navy, Air Power and Marine Corps bases listed there are in a minimum of one among these well being care deserts, and a few are in all three. You could find this map at npr.org.
MARTÍNEZ: However do not these bases – do not they’ve navy hospitals and clinics of their very own?
LAWRENCE: Yeah, some do. They’re actually costly. I imply, there is a joke that the Pentagon is definitely simply an HMO that typically fights wars.
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, jeez.
LAWRENCE: However up to now decade, for that reason, the navy was making an attempt to downsize and outsource to personal civilian care, particularly for members of the family. , maternity care, pediatrics should not precisely what you consider once you consider troops, however I do not know when you see the issue. A, have you ever tried to get a brand new physician these days?
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, and it has been a chore.
LAWRENCE: Yeah, took me six months after my doc retired or left, and…
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
LAWRENCE: …There’s mainly no slack in civilian well being care. And so when these households are advised to go off base for his or her care, for a lot of of them, there isn’t a care.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow. So what does the Pentagon say?
LAWRENCE: Protection Well being Company despatched us a press release after they noticed this map, they usually stated that when care is not out there, they attempt to use telehealth, or they’re going to pay for sufferers to journey or docs to journey to the sufferers.
However an inner Pentagon memo that we obtained this 12 months has acknowledged that the downsizing has gone too far. The Pentagon is aware of it must reverse course and rent extra clinicians on base, recruit extra docs and nurses. However that is going to take time.
And an enormous challenge they’ve is that TRICARE, which is the insurance coverage that navy households and retirees use after they go to pay for the civilian care – it pays at Medicare charges. So docs and hospitals are form of reluctant or simply plain cannot afford to take TRICARE sufferers.
MARTÍNEZ: Then what’s it like as a navy household making an attempt to get well being care proper now?
LAWRENCE: I have been listening to them for years from everywhere in the nation. I reached out to a dozen households at Fort Drum, for instance, in upstate New York, proper on the Canadian border. Listed here are a couple of of them.
SAMANTHA DAVIDSON: So if you must see an OB-GYN and you are not pregnant, it isn’t going to occur as a result of they only refer you to somebody who tells you that they do not have appointments.
NICK SIDMAN: Our center son is getting evaluated for autism. However for him simply to see a neurologist, it was – what? – a three-, four-month wait.
DAVIDSON: Behavioral well being right here – they both aren’t taking new sufferers, or they don’t take TRICARE as a result of TRICARE – it isn’t paying sufficient.
ELIZABETH SIDMAN: ‘Trigger we have been – like, I have been via two pediatricians since we have been right here. I have been via three major care docs ‘trigger they only maintain leaving or no matter.
DAVIDSON: Right here, they suppose that what I’ve is autoimmune, and the rheumatologist right here is not going to take TRICARE, which would depart me having to drive to Buffalo or Utica or someplace that is, , method over 2 hours away for remedy, which is simply – it isn’t reasonable.
LAWRENCE: In order that was Nick and Elizabeth Sidman and Samantha Davidson. I spoke to many extra who did not wish to be named as a result of they had been afraid they’d get in hassle, together with one navy spouse who I met right here in New York Metropolis as a result of she drove seven hours from Fort Drum to see a pediatric specialist for her daughter.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow, seven hours – what does this imply then for the U.S. navy as a complete?
LAWRENCE: Effectively, they want troops to remain wholesome with the intention to struggle conflicts, they usually additionally want sufficient docs and nurses and medics in case there’s a battle. However we’re additionally in the course of a recruitment stoop, and navy households more and more say that well being care is a priority. In case you plan on having a household, it would actually discourage you from becoming a member of or staying within the navy if you are going to be ordered to stay in a well being care desert.
MARTÍNEZ: Is there any resolution doable down the street, on the horizon, something like that?
LAWRENCE: We’ll be wanting into that. One factor is that Veterans Affairs, VA amenities have been combining with navy amenities in some locations, and a few civilian navy collaborations may be an answer. We’ll be reporting on these arising subsequent.
MARTÍNEZ: All proper, that is NPR’s Quil Lawrence. Quil, thanks.
LAWRENCE: Thanks, A.
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