In late October, the Defense Health Agency announced a suite of 36 five-year contracts, with a cumulative $7.5 billion ceiling, for professional medical services in the Defense Department’s military treatment facilities in the 50 states, District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. Some of that money will go toward improving the military health system in San Antonio.
The contracts cover physicians, dentists, nurses and other health care professionals who supplement uniformed military and federal civilian medical professionals.
Dr. Barclay Butler, the component acquisition executive for the Defense Health Agency, stressed San Antonio’s importance as a center for military medicine.
“San Antonio is a really important hub for us,” he said. “As you know, not only is there a lot of DOD, but it’s a medical hub with Brooke Army Medical Center and San Antonio Military Medical Center.”
All of the DHA contracts went to Small Business Administration-certified businesses, nine of which are in San Antonio. Those include Dependable Health Services, Inc.; Magnum Opus Technologies, Inc.; U.S. Got People; Vighter Medical Group, LLC; Angel Staffing, Inc.; Decypher Technologies, Ltd.; ReadiForce Government Solutions, LLC; Nurses Etc. Staffing; and Vesa Health & Technology, Inc.
Butler said better staffing should improve quality of care.
“We think that the patients will see changes here. We think that it will primarily affect access to care,” he said. “Where we might have had a vacancy in the care teams, those hospital commanders will be able to fill those vacancies more quickly, more readily, so that those care teams will be fully functional.”
The multiple award contract will allow military treatment facilities to post job vacancies to a pool of contract awardees, who will then compete to fill them.
The DOD has not produced official estimates of cost savings from consolidating multiple contracts. However, the Defense Health Agency plans to track that information in this case.
Butler said the contract will be used starting in mid-December or early January.
Carson Frame can be reached at carson@tpr.org or on Twitter @carson_frame
