Military personnel: improvements needed in the management of enlistees' medical early separation and enlistment information : report to Congressional committees
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office, issuing body. United States. Congress, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Accountability Office, July 2017
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Status Mass Screening Medical History Taking Military Personnel Documentation Self Disclosure Humans United States United States. Department of Defense.
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO Did This Study. For fiscal years 2005 through 2015, the military services enlisted over 1.7 million servicemembers at an estimated cost of approximately $75,000 each. Incomplete medical information or inadequate screening of enlistees at MEPS may result in them not fulfilling their initial terms of commitment and the military services losing their investment in them. The House Report accompanying a proposed bill for the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act included a provision for GAO to review applicant medical screening issues at the MEPS. This report assesses the extent to which (1) enlistees have not completed their initial terms of commitment due to medical reasons; (2) USMEPCOM obtains, analyzes, and uses information about enlistee medical early attrition; and (3) DOD has implemented its new electronic health record system at the MEPS. GAO analyzed accession and attrition data for fiscal years 2005 through 2015 (the most recent available), visited selected MEPS near services' training bases, and reviewed selected DOD, USMEPCOM, and service policies. What GAO Found. GAO's analysis of Department of Defense (DOD) accession and attrition data found that early attrition rates due to medical reasons during an enlistee's initial term of commitment were generally stable for fiscal years 2005 through 2015. As shown in the figure, the medical early attrition rate at the 48-month point was an estimated 14.9 percent in fiscal year 2005 and an estimated 13.7 percent in fiscal year 2011--the most recent year for which 48 months of data were available. The leading category for early attrition was "unqualified for active duty, other," which DOD defines as a nondisability condition such as obesity. U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command (USMEPCOM), DOD's organization responsible for medically qualifying applicants for military service, does not fully obtain, analyze and use information about enlistees who separate early due to medical reasons. This is because DOD does not have a clearly defined process for the military services to provide USMEPCOM with all relevant medical records. Further, the database that USMEPCOM relies on to analyze these records is inoperable and no schedule has been developed to repair it. As a result, USMEPCOM has provided limited feedback to chief medical officers--responsible for the medical qualification decisions--that they could use to improve screening outcomes. Without addressing these issues, DOD has limited assurance that medically disqualifying conditions among new enlistees will be identified before the services invest substantial resources in their initial training. DOD has not implemented its new electronic health record system at the Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS) and its schedule to do so is uncertain. Known as MHS GENESIS, this new system is intended to give DOD the capability to electronically share more complete medical data with and between both federal and private sector medical facilities that are similarly equipped. Without a clear and complete schedule for implementation of MHS GENESIS, DOD has limited assurance that the system will support the MEPS as planned. What GAO Recommends. GAO recommends that DOD develop a clear process for USMEPCOM to obtain medical early separation records, a schedule to repair the database used to analyze the records, and a schedule to deploy MHS GENESIS at the MEPS. DOD concurred with the first two recommendations and partially concurred with the third, stating it is already developing such a schedule. GAO continues to believe action is needed as discussed in the report.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (iii, 39 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101727028 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101727028