The American Federation of Government Employees has said the Army has backed out of plans to privatize all outpatient and inpatient third party billing and collections functions at all military treatment facilities in the Southern Medical Command.
According to the union, the command issued a memo announcing plans to outsource the functions without first conducting a formal cost comparison, as the DoD is required to do under law.
The union sent a letter to Army secretary John McHugh asking for a hold on the privatization effort, and subsequently the Southern Regional Medical Command rescinded its memo.
However, AFGE said it suspects the command intends to phase out civilian employees for the billing and collecting functions by not replacing retiring employees.
