A $4.2 billion defense contract with a university health system — the Defense Health Agency buying care under a framework

1Part of defense spending is healthcare

Defense spending brings aircraft, ships and missiles to mind. But the military is also an enormous employer, responsible for care of serving members, their families and veterans. The Defense Health Agency is the component that carries that. This contract is part of it, awarding comprehensive healthcare services to a university health system.

2The mix of awarding components

Splitting the 207 defense contracts this site holds as of 2026-09-02 by awarding component gives the figures above. Where procurement components of the services account for most, the Defense Health Agency has 9. Few in number, but large per contract — this one exceeds $4 billion. Because healthcare is needed continuously over long periods, it is secured through comprehensive contracts across ten-year spans.

3A description that is a sentence

Among the defense contract records this site covers, description fields are frequently internal code strings or empty. This one reads comprehensive healthcare services — a short phrase, but one from which what was procured can be read. Compared with a code string the information content is far higher.

A contract of the same kind, beginning and ending on the same dates, is recorded for a different recipient as well, which reads as dividing care provision among several providers by region or population.

4A ten-year period

The period runs from 2013-10-01 to 2023-09-30, exactly ten years. Both dates fall on fiscal year boundaries, showing a contract operated on an annual cycle. The median duration across the records this site holds as of 2026-09-02 is 10.7 years, so ten is a standard length. Total outlays on the record are $0, a state shared by 115 of the records (56 percent).