Cuts coming to Keesler hospital? It’s first up as Congress looks to trim military health jobs.
South Mississippi could learn in January the fate of Keesler Medical Center.
The Biloxi hospital is one of the five largest in the Air Force, and its staff and services are the reason many veterans say they retire to the Coast.
It’s also in the first round of reviews of all medical facilities — mandated by Congress across the entire Department of Defense — to determine if the military hospitals and clinics are right-sized, if staff and services should be cut, or if some of the facilities should close.
Air Force spokesman Tony Joyner said he does not anticipate Keesler Medical Center closing.
“There is a possibility that Keesler Medical Center could lose some services and personnel,” he said, based on the outcome of Section 703 review under the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. Even then, it could take three to five years before any reductions start, he said.
The inspection of the first one-third of all military medical centers was completed during the summer, and the report was due to Congress on Oct. 31. The report is not finished and is expected to be submitted in December or January.
“As soon as the 703 report is available and released to Congress, that report will be released to the public,” he said.
Congress has 90 days to comment back to the Department of Defense and Congress ultimately will decide whether to carry out the changes.
What could happen
Keesler is one of 17 Air Force facilities in this current review that also included Army and Navy hospitals and clinics.
The review looks at the number of patients and doctors, along with the costs of services, and compares that data to the criteria from Congress. The assistant secretary of Defense Health Services will determine if Keesler and the other hospitals should remain a medical center or become a community hospital, an ambulatory surgery clinic, a clinic, or provide acute care only for active-duty service members.
The uniformed and civilian staff at Keesler Medical care for 7,500 active-duty members, according to the Keesler Air Force Base website, 27,000 enrolled members and 80,000 family members and retirees along the Gulf Coast.
The staff knows about the review and the changes coming.
“They have not been informed of what the recommendation will be for Keesler,” Joyner said.
Feels like BRAC
For Biloxi and other communities that lived in fear through each round of BRAC — or Base Realingment and Closure — this review of the hospitals may feel similar.
It isn’t BRAC, but it does threaten the Coast with the possible loss of jobs, services and people coming to the Coast to be treated at the hospital.
Some military hospitals are in under-served communities with few public or private medical centers available to active and retired military and their families. That isn’t the case in South Mississippi, where military members now go to area hospitals and clinics for some services.
It took extraordinary action by the local chambers of commerce and residents to convince the BRAC Commission of the importance of Keesler to the community. It may take letters to the Coast delegation in Washington, D.C., and other actions to convince Congress of the necessity of Keesler Medical Center.
Sen. Roger Wicker, (R-Miss.), already is advocating for the hospital.
“Keesler Medical Center is vital to the ongoing operations of Keesler Air Force Base,” Wicker said. “Any attempt to downgrade its capabilities would be counterproductive and met with strong opposition from Mississippi’s congressional delegation.”
Changes already started
Keesler was the first hospital to have the DaVinci Xi surgical robot in the Air Force.
It also was the first Air Force medical center selected to transition to the control of the Defense Health Agency a year ago in October 2018. The organization of all military medical facilities under one agency, the DHA, was mandated by the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
The Department of Defense budget for 2020 proposes eliminating 20 percent of the military’s medical force, Military.com reported in January, and the more than 17,000 jobs would be converted to combat or support positions.
This year, the government is spending $50 billion on the military health system — split between the Army, Navy and Air Force — which has been targeted for years for overhaul and cuts, Kaiser Health News reported in March.
The proposed cuts also come as the Trump administration is privatizing veterans’ health care, and recently allowed vets the option of using civilian hospitals and clinics if VA facilities are not nearby or wait times are too long.
This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
