Military Officer - July 2007 - (Page 40)

washingtonscene infrastructure and wartime needs. The task force staff indicated these issues are being addressed by the group, and the costs under consideration will be transparent in the ﬁnal report. Speciﬁc beneﬁciary fee recommendations also won’t be ready until the ﬁnal report, which isn’t due until December. The interim report to Congress will reﬂect the kinds of general recommendations previously outlined. cases, thousands) of dollars in savings for each participating beneﬁciary. Heroes Task Force Reports Nicholson offers 25 ﬁxes. Zero Mail-Order Copayments? Bill seeks positive incentive. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) O R ep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) wants the Pentagon to ﬁnd ways to cut pharmacy costs without penalizing beneﬁciaries. DoD complains that most retirees get medications through retail outlets, which is far more expensive to the government than TRICARE’s Mail Order Pharmacy system. The Pentagon wants to change that behavior by raising retail pharmacy copayments nearly 70 percent to try to drive more beneﬁciaries to use mail-order. Before applying that “stick,” MOAA supports trying a “carrot” of eliminating mail-order copayments. Bilirakis’ new bill (H.R. 2319) would require a two-year pilot program under which beneﬁciaries would be offered free mail-order prescription reﬁlls of maintenance medications. Participants would be shown how much that would have saved them over the previous year, and provided information on how to have the medications delivered to their door at no cost. MOAA thinks this initiative has great potential as a win-win situation for the government and beneﬁciaries alike. If the Pentagon is serious about saving money on pharmacy costs, it should be willing to expend a little planning effort and 41 cents in postage to generate hundreds (or in many n May 9, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson presented the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee the ﬁnal report of the President’s Task Force on Returning Global War on Terror Heroes, which Nicholson chaired and whose members included several other cabinet secretaries. Task force recommendations included: ■ a joint DoD/VA disability rating process; ■ a combined DoD/VA case management system; ■ screening returning veterans for traumatic brain injury; ■ simplifying VA enrollment; and ■ a joint DoD/VA inpatient electronic health record. The committee applauded the recommendations but had strong words about poor management and budgeting processes that let the problems get this bad. Many expressed skepticism that the recommendations actually will get implemented, noting lack of action on similiar recommendations by the 2003 President’s Task Force on DoD and VA Health Care. Chair Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) expressed disappointment with the lack of a speciﬁc implementation schedule. Filner said the Veterans’ Affairs Committee wants timelines for action, with an implementation schedule that starts now. MO — Contributors are Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., director; Col. Mike Hayden, USAFRet.; Col. Bob Norton, USA-Ret.; Cmdr. René Campos, USN-Ret.; Cmdr. John Class, USN-Ret.; Col. Ana Smythe, USMC-Ret.; Col. Phil Odom, USAFRet.; Cass Vreeland; and Bret Shea, MOAA’s Government Relations Department. 40 MILITARY OFFICER J U LY 2 0 0 7

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

Military Officer - July 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: In Focus After the Kim Dynasty Animal House Paying Tribute MOAA Member Services Pages of History Faces of MOAA Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Scholarship Donors MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - July 2007

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