How to get Rich Fast... Be a Tricare Contractor

by
B Gen Bob Clements USAF ret p38bob@deepwell.com

Here is a success story built at the expense of the Military Healthcare system.

"TriWest fills insurance gaps in the military"
By Jodie Snyder, The Arizona Republic, Oct. 29, 2001

http://www.arizonarepublic.com:80/business/articles/1029triwest29.html


It makes interesting reading and explains why these guys show up at military hospital change of command ceremonies in $3000 suits. They get there driving new Mercedes...Notice the hospital commander doesn't go out and hire a replacement doctor like they used to..Now they have to go through a Tricare contractor.

You know in the Gulf War era, one of our brilliant doctors, Colonel Bob Gilmore, sat up a hospital and staffed it in England with specialist from all over the Military Health care System. The hospitals were backfilled with reservists or by doctors hired downtown and the MTFs never missed a beat. Retirees were still treated and the hospitals were going concerns. Now, many look like cemeteries with lights with patients being sent downtown to Tricare network doctors.

By the way, Dr Gilmore, former Hospital Commander at David Grant Medical Center is now the top honcho at the American Medical Association in Chicago. He is a cardiovascular surgeon and a graduate of the Air Force Academy. While he was gone,during Desert Storm, his hospital was a top performer and they didn't even know how to hardly spell Tricare in those days....

The big tasker now is having all the military guys attend Tricare meetings here and Tricare meetings there. I'll bet some of the top docs and top wannabes spend a third of their time attending Tricare meetings....

Well, now that we have a war, I may be exaggerating a little..but history has a way of repeating itself. So do bad habits....

Congress should subpoena some of the world class surgeons cooling their heels in Military Treatment Facilities and ask them why?? Why don't you have any work, doc, with all these patients floating around?

This industry and the whole TRICARE contracting maffia need to be audited by the GAO. Why doesn't it happen? Politically sensitive and a BIG hot potato...

Money...Money... money spent in the right places.

When The Assistant Secretary of Defense was given the Military Healthcare Budget instead of the Line Chiefs, the excuse was the military did not know how to manage their healthcare system. Why is it that the first people these Tricare Contractors hire when they retire are the military hospital administrators. How did they become so smart overnight when they were so dumb the day before?

I guess for the same reason that many of our smart people are hired by the Rand corporation to do studies and reports...funny while these same people were on active duty, they asked the Rand Corporation to write the reports for them.

How did Dr Sue Bailey go from being a LTCMDR in the USNRMC to being the numero uno honcho in the Department of Defense in charge of military medicine..Funniest part was that when she was fired at DoD, as ASD(HA), (ask Hillary and Bill why), she was made the Administrator for the National Transportation Safety board and over night, yes overnight, she became an expert in Firestone Tires and Ford Automobiles...her ex husband (shipping magnet)also made giant contributions to the Democratic National money machine. She also was a friend of Al's and Tipper. Good friends in the right places....make a great manager.....hmmmmmm

money...money...money (the American Taxpayer's)

$$$ sure does make the world go round.