Pentagon Curbs Military Hospital Cosmetic Surgery : Medicine: The action follows a legal review that found that many procedures done for free skirted a federal law banning unnecessary operations.

The Department of Defense on Tuesday prohibited beauty-enhancing cosmetic surgeries at military hospitals, saying military hospitals will now follow a “better interpretation” of the law.

The Pentagon’s actions followed a legal review that found that many cosmetic surgeries skirted a federal law banning operations that were not medically indicated. The new regulations will permit plastic surgery for active-duty and retired military personnel--as well as their family members--when the operations are meant to correct birth defects or repair injuries, spokeswoman Susan Hansen said. Military doctors will also continue performing post-mastectomy breast reconstructions.

The Times reported last month that military doctors worldwide were performing liposuctions, tummy tucks, nose jobs and other cosmetic surgeries that are rarely covered by private or military health insurance.

Under the new regulations, “face lifts and other procedures relating to the aging process and any procedure performed for personal, non-therapeutic reasons to improve the appearance will not be provided . . . using appropriated funds,” Hansen said.

Critics, who had said taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for such operations, responded warmly to the new regulations.

“I am extremely pleased. . . . The law is clear that this kind of procedure is not to be done at taxpayer’s expense,” said Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R-Coronado), a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “Military personnel, retirees and their families have many other pressing medical needs that have a far greater priority on our resources.”

Retired Rear Adm. Gene R. La Roque, director of the Center for Defense Information, said: “It was a wise and sensible move on the part of the Pentagon to proscribe that type of activity because it was sending the wrong signal to the American public.”

The new regulations were issued after the Defense Department’s assistant general counsel, Robert L. Gilliat, reviewed the existing legislation and concluded that military hospitals were misinterpreting a 1979 law in performing aesthetic cosmetic surgeries.

Dr. Enrique Mendez, assistant defense secretary for health affairs, hammered out the new regulations after meeting with the surgeons general of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals prohibit cosmetic surgery, and military medical insurance, known as CHAMPUS, does not cover such operations unless they are medically indicated. Under the new regulations, military hospitals will mirror the CHAMPUS policy.

Rear Adm. Robert Halder, commanding officer of San Diego’s Naval Hospital where 544 cosmetic surgeries were performed in the last two years, was among military officials who defended the surgeries, saying they allowed surgeons to perfect their skills.

As the new regulations are implemented, officials will explore other options for allowing doctors to perform cosmetic surgeries--perhaps under a fee structure, said Liz Noland, spokeswoman for the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington.

Worldwide, 2,354 breast augmentations, nose jobs, tummy tucks and other cosmetic surgeries were performed in 1989 at 33 Navy hospitals. Of these operations, 210 were performed for purely aesthetic reasons, Noland said.

The cosmetic surgeries, which can cost up to $6,000 in the civilian medical world, had been offered free of charge to active duty and retired military personnel, as well as to their family members.

A number of patients said they would not have opted for surgery if they had had to pay. One San Diego banker, whose husband is in the Navy, said she had her breasts enlarged because the operation was free. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it,” said the 30-year-old woman, who requested anonymity.