title: Leveraging the military health system as a laboratory for health care reform.
abstract: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act recently passed into law is poised to profoundly affect the provision of medical care in the United States. In today's environment, the foundation for most ongoing comparative effectiveness research is financial claims data. However, there is an alternative that possesses much richer data. That alternative, uniquely positioned to serve as a test system for national health reform efforts, is the Department of Defense Military Health System. This article describes how to leverage the Military Health System and provide effective solutions to current health care reform challenges in the United States.
authors.affiliation: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, 8901 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20889, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Dorrance
authors.forename: Suneil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramchandani
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Neil
authors.forename: Harry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fisher
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002017:Budgets; D002648:Child; D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017146:Models, Organizational; D017149:Private Sector / Q000458:organization & administration; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult