Jesse Malkin

One-liner: Provides information about where TRICARE Senior Pharmacy beneficiaries receive their medications and what factors influence where they choose to obtain their medications. 450-character abstract: Provides information about where TRICARE Senior Pharmacy beneficiaries receive their medications and what factors influence where they choose to obtain their medications. The Department of Defense can reduce its pharmacy acquisition costs by shifting prescribing from retail pharmacies to military treatment facility pharmacies and/or the TRICARE mail order pharmacy. The analysis in this report supports that effort.

This analysis determines how particular patient and facility characteristics influence Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) system allocations to the Department of Veterans Affairs regional service networks and simplifies and refines the models created in earlier RAND research to reflect policy changes and more recent data. The Veterans Health Administration asked RAND to conduct a quantitative analysis of the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) system, which allocates the congressionally appropriated medical care budget to the Veterans Integrated Service Networks. The study determines how particular patient and facility characteristics influence allocations to the service networks and simplifies and refines the models created in earlier RAND research to reflect policy changes and more recent data.