Q&A
The Defense Health Agency Stands Up
Lt Gen Douglas J. Robb, DO, director of the Defense Health Agency, discusses how the agency is reducing costs and improving efficiency while...
Navy Vice Admiral Raquel C. Bono has been named director of the Defense Health Agency (DHA), replacing Air Force Lieutenant General Douglas J. Robb, who is retiring. The DHA operation is massive, caring for a TRICARE-eligible population of 9.5 million, including 1.4 million service members on active duty, with more than 1 million inpatient admissions and 95.6 million outpatient visits in 2014.
“We congratulate 2 trailblazers in military medicine—Lt. Gen. Doug Robb and Vice Adm. Raquel ‘Rocky’ Bono,” said Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson, MD. “In the case of Doug Robb, no one has been a more central leader in conceiving, negotiating, shaping and ultimately establishing the Defense Health Agency.”
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After leading the agency from initial stand-up to full operational capabilities, Robb will retire. Under Robb’s leadership, DHA joined the previously independent health care operations of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, with unique cultures, procedures, and technologies. “This is probably the largest military health care transformation that has occurred in decades, if not ever,” Robb told Federal Practitioner.
Related: Lt Gen Douglas J. Robb on Building the Defense Health Agency
Bono was director of the National Capital Region Medical Directorate. Dr. Woodson pointed out how Bono’s history as a surgeon deployed in wartime, a hospital commander, and chief of staff at the former TRICARE Management Activity, among many other accomplishments throughout her career, will help her as she takes on the many tasks DHA faces.
“I look forward to the days ahead,” Bono said at the formal transition ceremony. “I know with the team we have assembled here we can’t go wrong.”