Hospitals and other medical facilities that participate in the Defense Department’s TRICARE health-care program will no longer be audited by the Labor Department for nondiscrimination compliance, under a final rule published by the DOL.
The rule issued Wednesday ends a yearslong dispute over whether the DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has authority over medical providers whose sole source of federal contract funding comes from TRICARE participation. The issue previously has been litigated in administrative courts and debated in Congress.
The agency clarified that it doesn’t have authority over those TRICARE providers, and established a “national interest” exemption from ...