The army health hazard assessment program's medical cost-avoidance model.

BACKGROUND The Logistics Management Institute initially developed a medical cost-avoidance model (MCAM) to estimate the costs associated with the failure to eliminate or control health hazards of army materiel systems during 1997. METHODS Presented is an updated version of the MCAM that uses cost factors for individual health hazard categories. The earlier MCAM calculated army materiel acquisition-life cycle medical costs based on a single cost factor for all hazard categories. RESULTS The Army's Health Hazard Assessment (HHA) Program, which uses the MCAM while assessing 18 types of health hazards commonly found in materiel undergoing the acquisition process, recognized the need to refine the MCAM to be hazard-type specific. These hazard types have unique cost factors and serve as the basis for the revised model. CONCLUSIONS The revision will assist the HHA program in targeting health hazards that have the potential to affect soldier health and readiness.