Defense Health Care: Oversight of Military Services' Post-Deployment Health Reassessment Completion Rates Is Limited

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA486360&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf



PDHRA (post-deployment health reassessment) is a screening tool for military servicemembers; it is designed to identify and address their health concerns including mental health concerns 90 to 180 days after return from deployment. Although DOD established PDHRA requirements and policies, it gave the military services discretion to implement them to meet their unique needs as long as the services adhere to the requirements and policies. DOD oversees the military services compliance with PDHRA requirements through its deployment health assessment quality assurance program and is required to report on the quality assurance program annually to the Armed Services Committees of the House of Representatives and Senate. The Senate Committee on Armed Services directed us to review DOD's oversight of PDHRA, and the House Committee on Armed Services and 11 senators also expressed. In this report, we focus on how DOD ensures that servicemembers complete the PDHRA. Specifically, we discuss how well DOD's quality assurance program oversees the military services' compliance with the requirement that they ensure that servicemembers complete the PDHRA.