By Rob Wolff
TRICARE is the federal government’s healthcare program for active duty and retired military members and their families. For many years, healthcare systems reasonably assumed that their subcontracts to provide services or benefits to federal employees under TRICARE would not invoke the jurisdiction of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), and thus would not mandate federal equal employment and affirmative action obligations. This assumption seemed particularly rational where the subcontract expressly provided that the healthcare system was not a federal contractor. In addition, the OFCCP’s own March 2003 directive stated that healthcare providers that have a relationship with participants in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) are not covered under OFCCP’s programs based solely on that relationship and thus are not subject to OFCCP’s federal contractor requirements.