DAYTON — Some local hospitals have seen a recent surge of patients covered by TRICARE, the health-care program serving active-duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members, retirees and their families.

The reasons aren’t completely clear, though local hospital officials have several theories.

The Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center, for example, saw a nearly tenfold increase in its TRICARE patient visits between federal fiscal 2007 and federal fiscal 2009 — from 2,185 to 20,988 — and is on pace to exceed last year’s total this year.

The Dayton VA attributed the enormous jump to an increase in awareness of VA benefits, but said the economy and an aging population also could be contributing factors. TRICARE now accounts for about 10 percent of patients seen by the Dayton VA.

The loss of jobs from the closing of General Motors Corp.’s Moraine assembly plant in 2008 and the shedding of jobs at other employers may also be forcing those with military connections to turn from the private sector to the military for health care, said Bryan Bucklew of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.

Bucklew noted another contributor to the increase in TRICARE patients at the VA may be a military health-care benefits transition center that opened at Wright-Patterson Medical Center in late 2008. Staffed primarily by VA personnel, the transition center is meant to streamline the process of military personnel moving from one health care system to another.

Kettering Health Network, whose largest hospitals are Kettering and Grandview medical centers, has seen a significant jump in the number of patient visits covered by TRICARE and other military health-care benefit programs.

KHN had 4,041 such visits in 2007, but is on pace to have 7,122 this year, a 76 percent increase in three years. The increases have been especially significant among patients who live in communities near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, including Fairborn, Beavercreek, Huber Heights and Riverside, KHN officials said.

Nationwide, there was a 20 percent increase in TRICARE utilization in nonmilitary hospitals between 2007 and 2009, according to TRICARE Management Activity.

Premier Health Partners, whose largest hospitals are Miami Valley and Good Samaritan, has not seen an appreciable change in TRICARE utilization among patients, a spokeswoman said.

Larry Zumstein, vice president for patient financial services at Kettering Health Network, said more people may be using TRICARE due to a drop in income, allowing them to qualify under the Veterans’ Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act of 1999.

KHN also saw some overflow in demand late last year for urologists and cardiologists from TRICARE patients who usually would get such care at the Dayton VA, Zumstein said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or bsutherly@DaytonDailyNews.com.