Understanding the geospatial distribution of beneficiaries in a health plan, beneficiaries’ morbidity, the health plan’s service delivery locations, and how these factors change over time is crucial to optimal management and planning. Increasingly, organizations such as the U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System (MHS) and the Veterans Health Administration are adopting drive time-based access standards as a means to ensure the adequacy of available services to their beneficiaries.

Altarum Institute has been at the forefront of research for the Department of Defense in developing nationwide drive time profiles that can quickly answer questions concerning the adequacy of beneficiary access to TRICARE provider networks comprised of thousands of providers across the United States. The culmination of this geospatial research was presented at national ESRI conferences and implemented into the Web-based TRICARE Management Authority Managed Care Forecasting and Analysis System’s Geographic Analysis Dashboard.

Additional examples of Altarum’s geospatial analyses work includes:

• Assessing MHS beneficiaries’ access-time to trauma centers incorporating both drive and flight time analyses
• Analyzing spatial patterns and changes over time in health behaviors, mammograms or preventive care measures, obesity, or other health risk indicators from the Health Care Survey of Department of Defense
• Evaluating beneficiaries using weighted, two-dimensional, median-based smoothing algorithms in a method called “head banging”
• Determining the how many of the 2 million active-duty family members reside within the TRICARE access standard (within 60 minutes) of a TRICARE network behavioral health provider