Defense Health Care: Post-Deployment Health Reassessment Documentation Needs Improvement

The Department of Defense DOD implemented the post-deployment health reassessment PDHRA, which is required to be administered to servicemembers 90 to 180 days after their return from deployment. DOD established the PDHRA program to identify and address servicemembers health concerns that emerge over time following deployments. This report is the second in response to a Senate Armed Services Committee report directing GAO to review DODs administration of the PDHRA, and to additional congressional requests. In this report, GAO examined 1 the extent to which DODs central repository contains PDHRA questionnaires for active and Reserve component servicemembers who returned from deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan and 2 how DOD monitors the administration of the PDHRA to Reserve component servicemembers. To conduct this review, GAO performed a quantitative analysis using DOD deployment and PDHRA data, reviewed relevant PDHRA policies, and interviewed DOD officials.