The Recapture Year
Fiscal 2027 opened Thursday on a stopgap that runs to December 11. Read the Director's four lines of effort beside the Military Health System's own budget justification and the plan for the year is clear: bring complex care back inside military hospitals, move active duty patients through faster, and staff the hospitals to carry the load. The pieces for success are already on the page. Here is how recapture works in 2027, the date each piece becomes visible, and what every reader can do to help it land.
Friends,
The fiscal year ended Wednesday at midnight, and the new one started on borrowed time. The President signed a continuing resolution on September 2 that funds the government at fiscal 2026 levels until December 11, so the Defense Health Agency opens fiscal 2027 with ten weeks of last year's money. [1][2] After last year's 43-day shutdown, ten weeks of stopgap counts as good news in this town. [3]
I want to start in Baltimore. The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland is on GAO's list of the Air Force's civilian training partners, one of the places military trauma teams go to treat the gunshot wounds and crushed pelvises a peacetime military hospital rarely sees. [4] By GAO's count the Department operates one Level I trauma center of its own, so a military trauma surgeon who intends to be ready for a war builds a large share of that readiness in someone else's hospital. [4] That arrangement works, and across fiscal 2020 through 2024 military medical personnel logged about 723,800 hours in civilian partnerships. [4] The plan for 2027 is to bring more of those cases home.
Vice Adm. Darin Via has been clear about direction since February. His four lines of effort are warfighter medical readiness, medical warrior currency, joint warfighting capabilities, and high-quality health care for every beneficiary, and he said in Bethesda in August that his FY2027 campaign order would finalize the plan to deliver them. [5][6] In March he told military medical leaders that a core group of 15 hospitals would spearhead the currency effort, using VA and civilian partnerships to bring more complex cases inside military walls. [7] The budget justification Congress received in April turns that intent into a strategy. Staffing shortfalls in fiscal 2025 pushed care into the private sector, it says, and efforts are underway to focus the key military treatment facilities on recapturing that care, with those facilities named as the primary choice for assigning uniformed medical and dental personnel. [8]
Recapture is the organizing strategy of fiscal 2027, and it can work. The budget, the Director's priorities, and the public record already hold most of what success requires. What follows is my map of the six conditions that make it work, where each one stands today, and when you will know.
Why recapture is the right bet
The justification makes the case on its own numbers. Medical cost per TRICARE Prime enrollee grew 8.8 percent in fiscal 2025 against a 6.7 percent goal, and the document says the system would have hit its target without pharmaceuticals, where cost per enrollee rose more than 24 percent on specialty and brand drugs including GLP-1 medications. [8] Most of that growth landed in purchased care. Care delivered inside military hospitals brings prescriptions into the hospital pharmacy, which the justification calls the lowest-cost option the system has. [8] The justification expects medication delivery inside military hospitals to rise as care rises, and it projects that a return to normal Prime workload and improved productivity will hold medical cost growth in line with the goal for the next couple of years. [8] Recapture improves readiness and bends cost in the same motion.
The starting position is stronger than the headlines suggest. The Military Health System reported 91.1 percent total force medical readiness in the last quarter of fiscal 2025, above the 90 percent goal. [8] Satisfaction among Prime enrollees at military hospitals and clinics improved over fiscal 2024, access for active duty patients has risen every year since fiscal 2023, and the claims and access problems that came with the new T-5 managed care contracts were largely resolved by the end of the year. [8] In May, fifteen military hospitals earned an A in the Leapfrog safety assessment. [9] A system with those numbers has something to offer the beneficiaries it is asking to come back.
Condition one: build the complex caseload the surgeons need
A surgeon stays current on volume and complexity, and the complex cases live with the older and sicker beneficiaries. The justification names retirees alongside family members as the people military hospitals should reattract, and DHA's June designation of six Specialty Care Centers of Excellence promised every beneficiary, past, present, and future, more choice in timely specialty care inside the system. [8][9] The model already has a result. DHA reported that its maxillofacial restoration pilot returned 94 percent of active duty patients to full duty within 16 weeks of surgery, with referrals managed through central referral management centers and specialty criteria shared with the managed care support contractors. [9]
My read is that Medicare-eligible retirees on TRICARE For Life become the center of the currency strategy in 2027, because they bring the cardiac, orthopedic, oncologic, and surgical complexity the Core 15 needs. Success here means framing that volume correctly. The new Private Sector Care Program excludes TRICARE For Life, and the budget states that the Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund pays the Department's share of care for Medicare-eligible retirees in military hospitals and in the network alike. [8][10] In the network, Medicare pays first; in a military hospital, where those beneficiaries are seen on a space-available basis, the Department carries the cost. [11] Retiree recapture is a readiness investment, and it succeeds when DHA measures it in surgical currency. You will see the first signal in caseload mix at the Core 15 by spring.
Condition two: let the savings follow the patient
Recapture of Prime enrollees from the network does show up in the new account, and the budget sets it up to be visible. The Private Sector Care Program is requested at $22.18 billion, up 6.7 percent, with the growth coming entirely from price changes. [8] That is prudent budgeting: the request banks no savings before the hospitals produce them, so every case that comes home in 2027 shows up as upside.
The account split is broadly supported. The House defense appropriations bill funds the Military Health Program at $43.3 billion and backs the two accounts, and the White House called section 724 of the House authorization bill the most significant adoption of an administration-proposed military health reform in about three decades. [12][13] The piece that turns that transparency into a working incentive is transfer authority. Once there are two appropriations, money moves between them only where a statute allows it. [14] A capped, reported authority to shift funds from private sector care to the hospital that recaptured the case lets savings follow the patient and rewards the Core 15 for succeeding. The design can be simple: a percentage cap on movement between the accounts, notification to the defense committees before each transfer, and a quarterly report showing the workload that moved with the money. That gives appropriators the transparency the split was built for and gives hospital commanders a reason to compete for every case. The final bill text and conference language are where that provision would appear, and the full-year appropriation is when you will know. The Senate's authorization bill has been waiting since July. [15]
Condition three: give active duty the fast lane and keep the door open
The TRICARE Prime access standards have been fixed in regulation for decades: urgent care within 24 hours, routine care within a week, and specialty care within four weeks. [16] Via's first line of effort commits to aggressively reducing the time service members spend nondeployable. [7] My read is that 2027 brings a faster specialty clock for active duty, because every day a soldier waits for orthopedics is a day of lost deployability, and the readiness percentage that is already green cannot show those days. A measure in days is the natural next step, and DHA has already shown what one looks like: the maxillofacial pilot reported a share of patients returned to full duty inside a stated number of weeks. [9] Apply that format to the conditions that drive the most nondeployable time and the readiness line of effort has a number that moves.
Success depends on capacity planning that serves both priorities at once. The same Core 15 surgeons who need retirees for complexity will be seeing active duty patients first, inside a four-week promise to every other enrollee. Hospitals that model specialty capacity against both demands, starting with orthopedics, general surgery, and cardiology, can schedule for both. The data has to be trustworthy for that to work. The Inspector General's December audit found urgent waits ranging from 1.2 to 21.1 days across fifteen overseas facilities and staff building workarounds for dashboard data they could not rely on, which gives DHA a clear list of what to fix first. [17] You will know this condition is on track when DHA publishes a baseline for days nondeployable.
Condition four: insource at the pace of hiring
The budget backs recapture with people. Services added 2,756 active duty personnel to DHA's hospitals and clinics between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026, civilian staff grew by 1,905 as the agency worked through hiring lags, and the average number of uniformed personnel in In-House Care rises by another 1,486 in fiscal 2027. [8] The justification adds $52.8 million in civilian pay for targeted recruitment and retention in critical skills, to strengthen internal capability and reduce reliance on contracted labor for certain administrative, clinical support, and operational functions inside military hospitals, and it reduces contract services by $331.9 million, $294.3 million of that in In-House Care. [8]
A hospital staffed by its own people is a hospital that can absorb recaptured care, and this is the condition that most rewards a careful sequence. Success means each contracted function transitions as its civil service or uniformed replacement arrives, with knowledge transfer built in. The stopgap helps here, because a continuing resolution funds last year's rate and gives the hospitals time to plan the handoff before a full-year appropriation sets the new levels. The justification pairs this with a $51.0 million increase for military-civilian and VA partnerships and investments in priority hospitals, including deployment planning, operations, training, medical materiel, and logistics offices, and for rescoping facilities with underutilized capabilities so that capability concentrates where the volume is. [8] Good transitions share a pattern: an overlap period written into the final option, a fixed-fee knowledge transfer task, and a named government lead for each function before the contractor steps back. You will see the transitions in option decisions on hospital support contracts after the full-year bill.
Condition five: get the growth money moving the day the bill passes
The tools for recapture are funded in the request. It adds $200.4 million for digital health, implementing ambient listening and expanding video visits and Tele-Critical Care, along with $21.1 million for a federated data ecosystem, $10.6 million to finish the EIDS transition by the end of fiscal 2027, $38.6 million for combat casualty care data and trauma systems, and $42.5 million for the blood program. [8] Ambient listening is already in use at several DHA hospitals. [7] Via has said DHA will stand up a Joint Warfighter Health System modeled on the Joint Trauma System, whose registry turned battlefield records into changes in evacuation policy and flight medic certification. [6][18] The trauma and data lines are the foundation for that system.
The stopgap holds those increases at fiscal 2026 levels until a full-year bill passes. [2] Success means being ready to obligate quickly when it does. Via told industry in August that DHA is soliciting commercial solutions through a faster process, and the acquisition shop that will run those buys now answers to Matt Clark, who announced in September that he would take the Component Acquisition Executive title at the end of the month and who has a record of publishing a schedule and keeping it. [19][20] White papers and requirements written during the stopgap become awards in the spring. One supply date falls in the same window: on January 1 the DFARS magnet restriction reaches back to the mine, and medical equipment suppliers who certify early keep their programs moving. [21][22]
Condition six: count the hours
Recapture and currency both run on data DHA has committed to build. GAO reported in June that DHA does not yet know how many civilian partnerships exist across the Department, and found that 39 percent of personnel whose partnership work appeared on readiness dashboards had no partnership hours in the timecard system. [4] The Department concurred with seven of GAO's nine recommendations, including guidance to collect complete clinical activity data from partnerships, and partially concurred with the two on cost-reduction strategy and a partnership inventory. [4] The partnerships are real and named: Navy corpsmen train at Cook County Health and Wake Medical Center, and Air Force trauma teams rotate through Cincinnati, Omaha, Las Vegas, St. Louis, and Baltimore. [4]
Success here is straightforward and inexpensive. Under an external resource sharing agreement, a military clinician treating TRICARE patients in a network hospital avoids the professional fee the private care account would otherwise pay, and one agreement GAO reviewed estimated about $1.2 million a year in avoided fees. [4] Logging those hours lets them count toward currency and toward the purchased care ledger at once. The fix is administrative: a timecard code for partnership work that feeds the same readiness dashboards that already capture partnership clinical activity, so the two records agree. When the partnership data guidance issues, the currency strategy has its scoreboard.
What success looks like by next September
If the six conditions line up, the evidence will be visible in public data before the fiscal year closes. Prime enrollment at military hospitals rises after open season. The Core 15 report a caseload mix with more complex surgical and specialty cases, and the private sector care account executes under its request because some of that care came home. DHA publishes a baseline for days nondeployable early in the year and a lower number by summer. Partnership hours appear in the timecard system for every clinician whose work shows on a readiness dashboard. The growth lines for digital health, data, blood, and trauma systems are obligated, the EIDS transition is complete, and the first Joint Warfighter Health System registry work is under way. Each of those is something a reader can check, and together they would make fiscal 2027 the year recapture moved from a budget paragraph to a result.
When you will know
Executive Order 14426 adds momentum on the records side. It requires service treatment and personnel records to reach VA at discharge by October 8, and requires the Secretaries of War and Veterans Affairs by January 6 to write an interoperability requirement into existing and future medical and personnel IT contracts. [23] I expect the direct MHS GENESIS platform contracts DHA announced in June to be among the first to carry it. [24]
The midterm elections fall on November 3, and the stopgap expires in the session that follows. [1] TRICARE Open Season, expected to run November 9 through December 8, is the earliest public measure of recapture, because Prime enrollment moving toward military hospitals is the signal the strategy is working. [25] The magnet clause takes effect January 1, the executive order's permanent record sharing and AI tools are due March 7, and the EIDS transition is due by September 30, 2027. [21][23][8]
How it could fail
Every plan has failure modes, and naming them is how a plan avoids them.
The first is money that cannot move. If the final bills create two accounts without transfer authority, a Core 15 hospital that wins back network care absorbs the cost in its own account while the savings stay in the other, and hospital leaders will learn quickly that recapture costs them. A full-year continuing resolution carries its own risk: it would hold the system at last year's structure and leave the growth lines unfunded for the year.
The second is capacity. If the faster active duty clock and the retiree caseload land on the same specialists without a capacity plan, waits for everyone else stretch, satisfaction drops, and the beneficiaries recapture depends on choose the network again. The Inspector General's findings on dashboard reliability mean DHA could also see the problem late. [17]
The third is sequence. If contracted support leaves before civil service and uniformed replacements arrive, the hospitals lose throughput in the year they need more of it. Civilian hiring has lagged before, and the justification says so. [8] The fourth is the beneficiary. Recapture asks families and retirees to choose military hospitals, and they will choose on access and experience. If open season shows Prime enrollment flat or moving to the network, the strategy has to win patients back before it can win cases back, and that takes longer than a fiscal year. Each failure mode has a known countermeasure, and the countermeasures are the conditions above.
What to do Monday
Inside DHA, ask the Comptroller to pursue capped, reported transfer authority between the two health accounts in the final bills, and frame it as the provision that lets recapture pay for itself. Model specialty capacity at each Core 15 hospital against an active duty clock and the four-week standard together, with retiree complexity layered on top. Publish a baseline for days nondeployable this quarter, and issue the partnership data guidance the Department already accepted. [4]
For appropriations and armed services staff, the one-paragraph ask is that transfer authority, so savings from recaptured network care can follow the patient into the hospital that treated them. [14][13]
Inside a network or a hospital, ask every clinician assigned to a civilian partnership to log this quarter's hours, and build a transition plan for each contracted function that will move to government staff. Ask J-6 which of your systems fall inside the January 6 contract review. [4][23]
Selling into DHA, help the transition succeed. Offer knowledge transfer and transition support for functions moving in-house, and bring scheduling, referral management, and specialty capacity tools to the Core 15, where two priorities meet in the same clinics. Write white papers for digital health, partnership support, data, blood, and trauma systems now so they are ready when the full-year bill passes, put the executive order's interoperability requirement into every medical or personnel IT proposal after January 6, and confirm your medical equipment suppliers can certify their magnets back to the mine. [19][23][21]
Back to Baltimore
The surgeon working nights at Shock Trauma is doing exactly what the Director's second line of effort asks of the medical force. In 2027 the system is building the conditions to bring more of that surgeon's work home: a complex caseload inside its own hospitals, people to staff them, tools to route the patients, and an account structure that can show the result.
The ledger that proves it is already being written in Baltimore, one shift at a time. When those hours are counted and the cases start coming home, fiscal 2027 will be the year the plan became a record.
Let's roll.
— Mary
Mission Meets Tech
The views expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not represent the official position of any organization. This content is for informational purposes only.
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Sources
[1] American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, "President Trump Signs Continuing Resolution to Fund Government Through December 11," September 8, 2026. Source for: House passage of H.R. 6500 on September 1, signature the following day, funding through December 11, and timing ahead of the November midterms. https://www.aacom.org/news-reports/news/2026/09/08/president-trump-signs-continuing-resolution-to-fund-government-through-december-11
[2] GovConWire, "New CR Blocks New Defense Production Starts," September 2026. Source for: the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, holding most programs at fiscal 2026 levels through December 11 or enactment of full-year appropriations, and barring new production and production-rate increases beyond fiscal 2026 levels. https://www.govconwire.com/articles/continuing-resolution-fy2027-funding-signed
[3] National Guard Association of the United States, "Fiscal 2027 Stopgap Budget is Both Good, Bad News," September 2026. Source for: last year's record 43-day shutdown. https://www.ngaus.org/newsroom/fiscal-2027-stopgap-budget-both-good-bad-news
[4] U.S. Government Accountability Office, "Defense Health Care: Actions Needed to Assess Civilian Partnerships' Contributions to Readiness," GAO-26-107677, June 4, 2026. Source for: the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center and other Navy and Air Force civilian partners listed for fiscal 2025; one Level I trauma center as of December 2025; approximately 723,800 partnership hours reported by approximately 2,300 personnel from fiscal 2020 through 2024; 155 of 396 personnel (39 percent) with no partnership hours in the DHA timecard system from May 2024 through April 2025; DHA not knowing the total number of partnerships; about $1.2 million a year in avoided professional fees from one external resource sharing agreement; and concurrence with seven of nine recommendations, with partial concurrence on Recommendation 1 (cost-reduction strategies through external resource sharing agreements) and Recommendation 2 (a standardized partnership inventory process). https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-26-107677/index.html
[5] Defense Health Agency, "We Are a Combat Support Agency says new DHA Director," February 12, 2026. Source for: Via's four lines of effort. https://dha.mil/News/2026/02/12/18/57/We-Are-a-Combat-Support-Agency-says-new-DHA-Director
[6] Defense Health Agency, Robert Hammer, "Data is Defense Health Agency's 'North Star' delivering decisive warfighter support," September 8, 2026. Source for: Via's August 26 remarks in Bethesda, the FY2027 campaign order finalizing the plan for his four strategic priorities, and the Joint Warfighter Health System modeled on the Joint Trauma System. https://dha.mil/News/2026/09/09/14/24/North-Star-of-Defense-Health-Agency
[7] Defense Health Agency, "Operational medical readiness preparing the medical warrior," March 10, 2026. Source for: Via's commitment to aggressively reduce the time service members are nondeployable; the core group of 15 hospitals using VA and civilian partnerships to bring more complex cases into military hospitals; and ambient listening tools introduced at several DHA hospitals. https://dha.mil/News/2026/03/10/15/57/Operational-medical-readiness-preparing-the-medical-warrior
[8] Department of War, Office of the Under Secretary of War (Comptroller), "Military Health System, Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Estimates, Volume 1, Combat and Operational Medicine Program (0130D) and Private Sector Care Program (0146D)," April 2026. Source for: the PBA-19 introductory statement on fiscal 2025 staffing shifting care to the private sector, refocusing key MTFs on recapture, reattracting beneficiaries including family members and retirees, and MTFs as the primary choice for assignment of uniformed personnel; the MERHCF statement; FY 2025 performance measures including 91.1 percent total force medical readiness, cost growth of 8.8 percent against a 6.7 percent goal, pharmaceutical cost growth above 24 percent per enrollee, MTF pharmacy as the lowest-cost option, Military Prime satisfaction improving over FY 2024, active duty access improving since FY 2023, and T-5 transition issues largely resolved; the PSCP request of $22,175,472 thousand, a 6.7 percent increase driven by price changes; the In-House Care personnel summary (active military end strength +2,756 and civilian FTEs +1,905 from FY 2025 to FY 2026; average military strength +1,486 in FY 2027); the $52.8 million civilian pay increase; the $331.9 million contract services reduction ($294.3 million in In-House Care); the $50,970 thousand Improve Wartime Readiness increase; and the $200.4 million digital health, $21.1 million federated data ecosystem, $10.6 million EIDS, $38.6 million trauma systems, and $42.5 million blood program increases. https://comptroller.war.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/FY2027/budget_justification/pdfs/09_Military_Health_System/MHS_PB27_J-Book-Vol1-COMP_PSCP.pdf
[9] DVIDS, Andrew Ortuzar, "6 military hospitals and clinics recognized as Centers of Excellence to continue delivering high-quality, specialty care," June 24, 2026. Source for: the Specialty Care Centers of Excellence; the past, present, and future beneficiaries language; the maxillofacial restoration pilot returning 94 percent of active duty patients to full duty within 16 weeks; central referral management and criteria for managed care support contractors; and fifteen military hospitals receiving a Leapfrog "A" in May 2026. https://www.dvidshub.net/news/568475/6-military-hospitals-and-clinics-recognized-centers-excellence-continue-delivering-high-quality-specialty-care
[10] Military Officers Association of America, "Inside the Military Health Care Budget: Big Changes … But What About Beneficiaries?," 2026. Source for: the PSCP appropriation funding care for eligible TRICARE beneficiaries from civilian providers, not including TRICARE For Life. https://www.moaa.org/content/publications-and-media/news-articles/2026-news-articles/advocacy/inside-the-military-health-care-budget-big-changes--but-what-about-beneficiaries/
[11] TRICARE, "TRICARE For Life." Source for: Medicare paying first and TRICARE For Life paying second for covered services, and care at military hospitals and clinics on a space-available basis. https://tricare.mil/Plans/HealthPlans/TFL
[12] House Committee on Appropriations, "Defense Appropriations Bill, 2027," subcommittee markup summary, June 10, 2026. Source for: $43.3 billion for the Military Health Program and support for two distinct appropriations. https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-appropriations.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/fy27-defense-subcommittee-bill-summary.pdf
[13] Office of Management and Budget, "Statement of Administration Policy, H.R. 8800, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027," July 21, 2026. Source for: section 724 replacing the Defense Health Program with two accounts and the "approximately three decades" characterization. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/SAP-HR8800.pdf
[14] 31 U.S.C. 1532, "Prohibition against transfers." Source for: the rule that an amount may be withdrawn from one appropriation account and credited to another only when authorized by law. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/1532
[15] Congressional Research Service, "FY2027 NDAA: Status of Legislative Activity," IN12704, updated September 1, 2026. Source for: the July 14 cloture vote on S. 4784 and no further Senate action as of September 1. https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/IN12704.html
[16] TRICARE, "TRICARE Prime Access to Care Standards," and 32 CFR 199.17(p)(5) as described in Federal Register notice 2016-14786, June 22, 2016. Source for: urgent care within 24 hours, routine care within one week, and specialty care within four weeks. https://tricare.mil/GettingCare/TRICARE-Prime-Access-Standards and https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-06-22/html/2016-14786.htm
[17] Department of War Office of Inspector General, "Audit of the Defense Health Agency's Management of Military Medical Treatment Facility Access to Care," DODIG-2026-025, December 8, 2025, press release. Source for: urgent appointment waits from 1.2 to 21.1 days across fifteen OCONUS facilities and staff workarounds for unreliable dashboard data. https://www.dodig.mil/In-the-Spotlight/Article/4356078/press-releaseaudit-of-the-defense-health-agencys-management-of-military-medical/
[18] Joint Trauma System, "Registries," Department of Defense Trauma Registry page. Source for: the credited role of DoDTR analysis in the Golden Hour evacuation policy and the flight medic certification change. https://jts.health.mil/index.cfm/data/registries
[19] ExecutiveGov, "DHA Director VADM Via Outlines Health IT Initiatives," August 14, 2026. Source for: the faster commercial acquisition process. https://www.executivegov.com/articles/darin-via-dha-director-health-it
[20] OrangeSlices AI, "Matt Clark named DHA Assistant Director for Research, Development, and Acquisition and the Component Acquisition Executive," September 3, 2026. Source for: the appointment effective at the end of September. His record of publishing and meeting schedules is analyzed in Mission Meets Tech, "The Man Who Publishes His Plan," September 4, 2026. https://orangeslices.ai/matt-clark-named-dha-assistant-director-for-research-development-and-acquisition-and-the-component-acquisition-executive/
[21] DFARS 252.225-7052, "Restriction on the Acquisition of Certain Magnets, Tantalum, and Tungsten." Source for: the restriction reaching the supply chain from mining forward, effective January 1, 2027. Analysis in Mission Meets Tech, "Seven Steps to a Magnet," July 28, 2026. https://www.acquisition.gov/dfars/252.225-7052-restriction-acquisition-certain-magnets-tantalum-and-tungsten.
[22] The White House, Executive Order 14415, "Securing America's Defense Supply Chains and Ensuring Domestic Acquisition of Critical Materials," July 20, 2026. Source for: the limit on nonavailability determinations. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/07/securing-americas-defense-supply-chains-and-ensuring-domestic-acquisition-of-critical-materials/
[23] The White House, Executive Order 14426, "Accelerating Access to Veterans' Benefits and Employment Opportunities," September 8, 2026; 91 FR 58003, September 11, 2026. Source for: the 30-day discharge records requirement, the 120-day contract review and interoperability requirement, and the 180-day requirements for permanent sharing and AI tools. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/accelerating-access-to-veterans-benefits-and-employment-opportunities/
[24] SAM.gov, Defense Health Agency notice of intent to sole source, June 9, 2026, for direct MHS GENESIS platform contracts with Oracle Health, Philips, Amwell, Henry Schein, and Solventum. The link to the EO 14426 requirement is the author's analysis. https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/947fe670c6184824a5def4e406548a8c/view
[25] FedTools, "TRICARE Open Season for 2027 coverage," updated August 24, 2026. Source for: expected open season dates of November 9 through December 8, 2026. Secondary source; confirm against the official TRICARE announcement. https://www.fedtools.com/blog/tricare-open-season-2027-switch-guide and https://tricare.mil/openseason
Sources verified as of October 1, 2026.
