Military Officer - February 2007 - (Page 32)

washingtonscene pening in the private sector and to cover a larger share of increasing military health care costs. MOAA believes strongly that focusing only on cash payments in retirement ignores that military people pay far higher premiums for their health and other retirement beneﬁts than any civilian workers — and pay them “up front” through decades of service and sacriﬁce. It’s unrealistic to think that military health fees will never increase, but MOAA and TMC assert, as a fundamental principle, that the percentage increase in military beneﬁciaries’ health care fees shouldn’t exceed the percentage increase in their military compensation. DoD must do a better job of holding down its own costs before seeking large fee hikes for beneﬁciaries. We have yet to see satisfactory responses to a list of 16 such costsaving initiatives MOAA provided to the Pentagon and Congress. Last year, MOAA and TMC worked with Reps. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Chuck Hagel (RNeb.) to introduce legislation limiting or eliminating current Pentagon authorities to raise TRICARE fees. As this column was being written, MOAA was consulting with the same champions about introducing similar bills for the 110th Congress. In the meantime, we need a barrage of mail to House and Senate Armed Services committee leaders to ask them to stand up for retired military beneﬁciaries if Defense Department leaders won’t do that. At pages 32 and 52 are four tear-out letters to the chairman and ranking minority member of each committee, making the case that disproportional increases in military health care fees devalue servicemembers’ decades of sacriﬁce and can only hurt future retention and readiness. Please take a few minutes to invest in four stamps and mail these important letters. 32 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2007 No Pain, No Gain Medicare/TRICARE cuts were averted, but rates remain frozen at the 2005 level. I n a final action before adjourning in December, Congress staved off the 5.1-percent cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors that had been scheduled to take effect in January 2007. On Dec. 7, House and Senate negotiators agreed on a package of actions that froze payments at the 2006 level — which is really the 2005 level, since Congress froze rates last year, too. One new exception is that doctors who agree to report their compliance with a speciﬁc set of quality standards will receive a 1.5-percent bonus in 2007. This is a big deal for TRICARE beneﬁciaries as well as Medicare-eligibles, because TRICARE payment rates are tied to Medicare’s. MOAA’s big concern has been that cutting payments to doctors can only deter more of them from accepting Medicare and TRICARE patients. The legislation also extended for one more year a waiver of the $1,740 annual cap on Medicare payments for outpatient speech and physical therapy that was scheduled to take effect in January. Under the waiver, the cap won’t apply to therapy that’s considered “medically necessary” (as almost all therapy is). For the long term, we must change the law that sets unrealistically low Medicare and TRICARE payments. The current statutory formula will require cuts of more than 30 percent over the next seven years, which everyone in government acknowledges is inappropriate. So far, Congress hasn’t been willing to put up the money for a longer-term ﬁx, ﬁnding it easier simply to wait for each

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - February 2007

Military Officer - February 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: Building Stability Reaching Out, Reaching Up 5 Tax-Season Strategies A Capital Event MOAA Member Services Pages of History Information Exchange Advertising Index Member Books Sounding Taps MOAA Calendar Encore

Military Officer - February 2007

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