INTRODUCING the medical side of EFMP BY HENRY K RANCE, M.D.
WILLIAM BEAUMONT ARMY MEDICAL CENTER (WBAMC)
The Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) is a congressional mandated program that ensures required dependent medical and educational services are available at a sponsor’s gaining duty station. While there are multiple reasons a Family member may be enrolled, generally it is directly related to the Family members specialized care needs, per Department of Defense Instruction 1315.19. William Beaumont Army Medical Center (WBAMC) focuses on the medical portion of the program, and houses a special unit and office at the Hugo V. Mendoza Family Medical Clinic on Fort Bliss. TRICARE beneficiaries and their Primary Care Providers (PCP) are responsible for identifying potential EFMP enrollable conditions and communicating required care needs to the WBAMC EFMP office through the DoD standard medical and education summary forms (DD 2792/DD 2792-1). In limited circumstances such as overseas Family Member Travel Screening (FMTS), the WBAMC EFMP office assists in identifying enrollable conditions. Once care summaries are received in the WBAMC EFMP office, the WBAMC EFMP staff validates the administrative and medical accuracy of the summary forms before submitting them to the regional Medical Readiness Command (MRC) office for an enrollment decision. All enrollment decisions are made by the regional MRC office; the WBAMC EFMP office only provides potential enrollment recommendations and identification. In addition to validating summary forms, the WBAMC EFMP office completes the FMTS documented on the DA 5888. Within the Fort Bliss and El Paso community, the WBAMC EFMP medical teams are the only individuals authorized to complete DA 5888 for overseas command sponsored Family travel. Primary care providers may and often do make travel recommendations; however, a service member’s gaining duty station is solely responsible for approving or denying Family travel and make decisions based on their boots-on-the-ground expertise of their healthcare market. Another process that is often confused with Family travel is compassionate reassignment. @blissmwr
Compassionate reassignments are not covered under the EFMP regulations, falling under AR 614-200 instead. While there are many reasons why a compassionate reassignment might be requested, they are always requested through the Human Resources Command (HRC). When requesting a compassionate reassignment for medical reasons, service members may be required to demonstrate enrollment in EFMP. Due to the sensitive nature of compassionate request, EFMP expedites the processing of enrollments relayed to a compassionate reassignment request. Beyond expeditious EFMP enrollment, WBAMC EFMP is not involved in the compassionate reassignment process. In August 2022, there were major changes to how EFMP paperwork is processed transitioning from an almost entirely paper process to now an entirely electronic process utilizing Enterprise EFMP (E-EFMP). E-EFMP allows sponsors more control to monitor and track their enrollments, updates, disenrollments, and FMTS. All previous forms such as the DD 2792, DA 5888, and DD 7246 still exist; however, they are now in an electronic format imbedded through the electronic E-EFMP process and the WBAMC EFMP office has no capability to process non-electronic forms. The William Beaumont Army Medical Center (WBAMC) EFMP staff are here to facilitate all EFMP enrollment and screening processes as efficiently as possible to make EFMP enrollment and screening less challenging. If service members need assistance with an EFMP medical actibon (enrollment, renewal, update, disenrollment) or FMTS, the WBAMC EFMP office is available Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for in-person walkin appointments on the second floor of the Mendoza clinic. The EFMP office can also be reached daily by telephone at 915-742-3715 and email at usarmy. bliss.medcom-wbamc.mbx. efmp@health.mil. If a service member or Family member is unable to reach the team, then it is encouraged for them to leave a message, as the team will contact them within 72 hours. Exceptional Family Member Program
DECEMBER | 2023
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