TRICARE acquisition chief works to bring contracts in-house

Since arriving at the Military Health System in October 2008 to take the top contracting job at TRICARE Management Activity, Michael Fischetti has worked to increase and professionalize the government acquisition workforce and to bring contracting in-house, he tells Nextgov.

When he took the job, contractors were, for the most part, managing contracting, said Fischetti, who runs contracting for the TRICARE health insurance system for military personnel, retirees and their families, and also serves as component acquisition executive for the MHS.

Fischetti, who has spent 25 years in federal acquisition and served as director of the Office of Procurement and Assistance Policy at the Energy Department, said the contract workforce at MHS and TRICARE now numbers 280 federal employees, a huge jump from when he arrived to find an acquisition workforce of about 20, primarily contractors.

That workforce managed $10.9 billion worth of TRICARE health care service contracts in 2010 with major health insurance companies, along with $2.3 billion worth of information technology and other non-health care service contracts, for a total of slightly more than 3,200 separate contracts, Fischetti said.

TRICARE runs health care service contracting in-house through an office in Aurora, Colo. But for other contracts -- particularly IT contracts -- TRICARE and MHS run procurements through contract vehicles operated by the Army, Navy or the General Services Administration.

Fischetti said he wants to bring these contracts in-house because "it is the best way to meet our acquisition strategy and facilitate more efficient contracting." This, he said, will allow TRICARE and MHS to more loosely align contracting with strategic goals.

He also said he has set up an ethics ombudsman office to field complaints from vendors, established a policy and compliance office, and improved the small business program office, all efforts to "change the way we do business."

TRICARE needs to develop the skills of its acquisition workforce, Fischetti said. To do that, he has set up the health service's first acquisition management and policy office.

Because acquiring health care services and products is not the same as buying ships or tanks -- let alone beans or bullets--Fischetti is working with the Defense Acquisition University to set up a health care management track.

TRICARE and MHS also have to recruit and develop young professionals, he added. There currently are 11 acquisition interns on staff, and the program is paying off as these interns have been on the job for about a year, Fischetti said, and they have not shown any signs of wanting to leave.