Military Officer - February 2006 - (Page 38) washingtonscene Push Representatives Now on SBP ■ Send an MOAA-sug- gested e-mail via MOAA’s Web site at http://capwiz. com/moaa/home/ or ■ Call via MOAA’s toll-free Capitol Hill Hot Line (866272-6622). Just ask the Capitol operator to connect you to your U.S. representative’s office, then urge him or her to contact Rep. Chet Edwards (DTexas) to sign the SBP discharge petition. clear you expect follow-through on his or her stated cosponsorship. MOAA offers two ways to communicate that message (see box at left). Medicare, TRICARE Rates Frozen Impact on participation by doctors remains to be seen. M OAA pushed hard last year, with the American Medical Association, to get Congress to change the law requiring a 4.4 percent reduction in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors, effective Jan. 1, 2006. We worried that such payment cuts would discourage more doctors from seeing TRICARE and TRICARE For Life patients. All acknowledge the statutory payment formula is broken, but Congress also balks at the cost of payment increases. Congress’s compromise budget savings package (S. 1932) — approved in mid-December — struck a “half-a-loaf” deal. It repealed the 4.4 percent payment cut but froze 2006 Medicare and TRICARE payments at 2005 levels. That’s better than the scheduled cut, but it still amounts to a modest rate reduction, as physicians’ costs rise every year. On the positive side, the budget package requires a Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to report to Congress on ways to fix the statutory payment-setting formula, which sets reimbursement rates for physicians. MOAA thinks it’s vital to make that fix as soon as humanly possible. TRICARE and Medicare already are two of the lowest-paying programs in the country. We must do better than a rate freeze to keep providers interested in accepting military patients. The budget package also updated provisions of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 that will effectively raise Medicare Part B premiums for Medicare-eligibles with annual incomes over $80,000, starting in 2007. Currently, Part B premiums are set to cover 25 percent of the government’s total cost per individual to provide Medicare benefits. Under the new law, some higher-income beneficiaries will see their Part B premiums doubled or tripled by 2009, as their premiums will be raised to cover a higher share of the government’s total cost, as follows: ■ Under $80,000: 25 percent (no change from current law) ■ $80,001 to $100,000: 35 percent ■ $100,001 to $150,000: 50 percent ■ $150,001 to $200,000: 65 percent ■ Over $200,000: 80 percent Under the 2003 law, those premium increases were to be phased in over five years. The new change shortens the phase-in period to three years, with 30 percent of the increase coming in 2007, 67 percent coming in 2008, and the full increase in 2009. MOAA remains as concerned today as we were two years ago about this plan to means-test what was enacted to be a universal health insurance plan for all older Americans. Two other provisions of the budget package also may be of interest to MOAA members: ■ Cap on physical therapy payments: The new package would implement a $1,740 annual cap on Medicare payments for physical therapy but directs Medicare to implement a process allowing an exception from the cap if therapy is deemed medically necessary. ■ Long term care coverage under Medicaid: The package tightens rules concerning transfer of assets to qualify for long term care, and applicants will be required to disclose annuities as assets. People with more than $500,000 equity in a home will not be eligible. [CONTINUES ON PAGE 40] 38 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2006 http://capwiz.com/moass/home http://capwiz.com/moass/home
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