Military Officer - October 2007 - (Page 29)

washingtonscene As a 10-percent cut in Medicare/TRICARE payments looms for January, thousands of MOAA members helped convince the House to approve a ﬁx; Senate action is still to come. L E G I S L AT I V E N E W S T H AT A F F E C T S Y O U Overdue Doctor Bill I f you were among the more than 11,000 people who responded to MOAA’s special legislative alert in late July, you helped carry the day in the House of Representatives. The House passed legislation (H.R. 3162) Aug. 1 that would stop the nearly 10-percent cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors scheduled for January 2008 under current law. Instead, H.R. 3162 would authorize modest increases for 2008 and 2009. MOAA thinks these increases are essential to prevent more doctors from refusing to see elderly and/or military patients. The downside is that the House included the Medicare/TRICARE payment provision in a huge omnibus health care bill that would increase coverage under Medicaid and reduce payments to Medicare HMO plans among a variety of other changes — some of which are controversial and have drawn a presidential veto threat. The Senate version of the Medicaid bill didn’t include the Medicare/TRICARE payment change. As this column went to press, House and Senate leaders had yet to resolve the discrepancies between their respective bills. But the House action shows congressional leaders understand that the Medicare/TRICARE payment issue must be ﬁxed before January. If the payment ﬁx doesn’t stay in this bill, or if the bill ends up getting vetoed, Congress will consider other options to address the problem before the end of the year. Some other issues of interest addressed in H.R. 3162 include: ■ a gradual reduction in Medicare copayments for outpatient mental health services (from 50 percent to 20 percent); ■ elimination of Medicare copayments for most preventive care; and ■ a two-year extension of current rules that allow increased Medicare coverage for “medically necessary” outpatient physical and speech therapy. DEFENSE BILL ACTION ALERT ■ By the time you receive this magazine, the Senate likely will be debating amendments to the FY 2008 Defense Authorization Bill, including health care fees, concurrent receipt, SBP fixes, reserve retirement, and the military pay raise. Please visit http://capwiz .com/moaa/home to send your senators MOAAsuggested messages on these issues. Commission Breaks Deadlock Panel re-votes to end medical retiree penalty. L ast month, MOAA reported the Veterans’ Disability Beneﬁts Commission had deadlocked on a vote to extend concurrent receipt eligibility to servicemembers forced into medical (Chapter 61) retirement before attaining 20 years of service. After considering additional information in its August meeting, including strong arguments by commissioners Maj. Gen. William Matz, USA-Ret., and Butch Joeckel, USMC, the commission OCTOBER 2007 MILITARY OFFICER 29

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

Military Officer - October 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: A Hero's Welcome? Partners in Patriotism Tales from Beyond the Battlefield Financial Results of MOAA Pages of History Information Exchange Faces of MOAA Member Books MOAA Scholarship Donors Advertising Index MOAA Member Services MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - October 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.