Civilian Doctors to Check Military Physicians’ Work

Civilian doctors will soon be reviewing the work of Army, Air Force and Navy physicians in an unprecedented program that will be part of the Pentagon’s effort to improve its troubled health care system.

The services will receive the order Friday, and it will go into effect no later than Jan. 1, according to a private letter written by Dr. William Mayer, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

“I will announce at the meeting of the Defense Health Council my decision to direct that in-patient care at all 168 military hospitals worldwide be subjected to systematic external peer review similar to that done for Medicare patients,” Mayer wrote last week to Carolyne K. Davis, the administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration. The Associated Press obtained the letter from the agency.

Mayer called it an “unprecedented decision, which will dramatically complement the quality-assurance programs we have put in place in DOD medical facilities during the past two years.” He could not be reached for comment Sunday.

The Health Care Financing Administration has been overseeing the establishment of a system for paying the hospital costs of Medicare patients and has been assisting Mayer’s office. A source at the agency said Mayer’s decision, in one abrupt step, “will end the process of only military doctors reviewing the medical decisions of other military docs.”

Under a mandate from Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger to improve military medicine, Mayer already has the authority to create the new system.