The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has let a military dental plan contract award stand.
The GAO has upheld a decision by the TRICARE Management Activity agency at the U.S. Department of Defense to award a $3.1 billion TRICARE dental plan contract to a unit of MetLife Inc., New York (NYSE:MET), rather than to United Concordia Companies Inc., Harrisburg, Pa., a unit of Highmark Inc., Pittsburgh.
TRICARE is a program that provides health coverage for military personnel, military dependents and military retirees who get medical care outside the military and veterans health care systems.
United Concordia has been the TRICARE dental program provider for 15 years.
The new TRICARE dental contract would have provided dental coverage for 2 million TRICARE dental program enrollees for a 12-month base period and 5 1-year option periods.
TRICARE managers reasonably determined that the MetLife provider network was larger and better for meeting TRICARE needs than United Concordia’s network, the GAO says in an explanation of the TRICARE dental contract ruling.