Guam Medical Plans Do Not Ensure Active Duty Family Members Will Have Adequate Access to Dental Care

摘要

The Inspector General, Department of Defense (IG/DoD) evaluated DoD's plans for providing dental care to active duty family members (ADFMs) in Guam in view of the anticipated growth in population resulting from the planned base closure in Okinawa and subsequent realignment to Guam. The IG/DoD recognizes that population projections may change, which could have an impact on medical planning. DoD plans for providing dental care to ADFMs in Guam need improvement. Specifically, the plans currently require family members to rely on local dental providers, despite the likely shortage of dentists because of the expected population increase. The realignment will increase the ADFM and civilian populations by about 39,100 during peak construction, thus increasing Guam's total population by 22 percent. With only 43 civilian dental providers, population increases could push the population-to-dentist ratio to 5,000-to-1, potentially resulting in Guam's designation as a Health Professional Shortage Area for dental care. The plans are inadequate because Navy officials concluded that the current TRICARE Dental Program network in Guam would be sufficient to provide dental care to ADFMs; however, in arriving at this conclusion, Navy officials did not do the following (1) fully examine the impact the increase in total population would have on the availability of dental care in Guam, and (2) coordinate with the TRICARE Management Activity to ensure that the TRICARE Dental Program could continue to provide adequate access to dental care for active duty family members. If ADFMs do not have adequate access to dental care, it could negatively impact quality of life and morale for active duty members and their families.