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Military Health System Transformation | Defense Health Agency
The Defense Health Agency marked the eighth year since its creation and the launch of its mission providing a medically ready force and ready medical force to combatant commands and Military Health System beneficiaries around the world.
“What I sense today, and particularly as I look back on the last 12 months, is great pride – an organization on the move and working in a unified way to support those we serve,” said DHA Director Army Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Ronald Place at a hybrid in-person and online event on Oct. 1 at DHA headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia.
“I see an organization looking ahead, gaining confidence in itself and its parts, and the confidence of its stakeholders,” he said. “I see it in everyday activities, both large and small, and I see it in the increased demands placed on us.”
Place also said as the DHA celebrates the beginning of its ninth year as a Combat Support Agency, it is facing heightened expectations from those who count on it for support -- whether that support is for overseas operations, providing routine health care at home or responding to crises like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Since the DHA was first established, this organization has understood it is a supporting organization,” Place explained. “We know that our organizational mission doesn’t exist in a vacuum. In fact, we are here to support the rest of the Department so that they can accomplish their missions – the combatant commands, the military departments, the military markets, the individual MTFs, and so on.”
Since its inception, DHA’s responsibilities have expanded from managing shared health care services to being directly responsible for health care delivery at military treatment facilities.
“And that responsibility will completely transition to the agency in fiscal year 2022,” he said.
The DHA is entering the final phase of its Congressional mandate to consolidate management of a unified military health system, and almost all large markets have transitioned to the DHA, Place said.
On the immediate horizon, Place said, the DHA will be focusing on the single and stand-alone markets, and by Spring 2022 will welcome overseas regions into the DHA family.
He emphasized that performance has been the “single, most important factor” in DHA’s evolution.
“We could have all the infopapers and PowerPoints in the world to share, but it’s our performance that is creating momentum and confidence and creating increased demand for our services and our insights,” he said.