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Military Personnel: Medical, Family Support, and Educational Services Are Available for Exceptional Family Members

GAO-07-317R Published: Mar 16, 2007. Publicly Released: Mar 16, 2007.
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Highlights

The Department of Defense's (DOD) Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) is a mandatory enrollment program for active duty servicemembers who have family members with special medical needs. When military servicemembers are considered for assignment to an installation within the United States, EFMP enrollment is used to determine whether needed services, such as specialized pediatric care, are available through the military health system at the proposed location. Due to this consideration, each military service assigns servicemembers with exceptional family members who have significant needs to certain locations because of the resources available through DOD's health care system in these communities. Further, DOD policy allows (but does not require) the military services to provide family support services specifically for exceptional family members. State and local medical, family support, and educational services in these communities may also serve the military's exceptional family members as part of providing services to local residents. The Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 directed us to evaluate the effect of EFMP on health, support, and education services in selected civilian communities with a high concentration of EFMP enrollees. As discussed with the committees of jurisdiction, this report describes (1) the services provided by the military health and family support systems that are available to meet the needs of exceptional family members within the United States, and (2) state and local services--including medical, family support, and educational services--available for the exceptional family members in select communities.

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