Contractors Using Military Clinics

Civilians Also Are Not Paying, Audit Says

By Walter PincusWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 7, 2009

Military clinics and field hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan have supplied more than $1 million a month in health-care services to civilian contractors during the past two years without seeking reimbursement from their employers, as provided by law, according to a new audit by the Defense Department inspector general.

The report, issued Monday, noted that all costs associated with both emergency and primary medical care are reimbursable to the government and are the responsibility of the contingency contractor personnel, their employer or their health insurance provider.

Yet the study found that Army, Navy and Air Force clinics and hospitals were not billing contractors because there was no unified system for doing so. Moreover, more than half the contracts were vague about who pays for the medical treatment of employees, although the law is clear on this point, the IG found.

Investigators cited cases in which contractors were hospitalized with heart problems, pneumonia, an accidental self-inflicted gun shot or injuries from a blast, but the medical facilities did not bill the patients’ employers for $141,340 for their stays. At the time, the military did have rates of $2,041 a day for nonmilitary inpatients and $195 per visit for outpatients.

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