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United States Department of Defense

Military Update: HASC votes to hike drug co-pays, require RX refills by mail

Sat, 05/12/2012 - 12:01am

By Tom Philpott

For the Herald/Review

The House Armed Services Committee has voted to raise drug co-payments for TRICARE beneficiaries who have brand-name prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies or through the TRICARE mail order program.

The committee also voted to help control Department of Defense drug costs by requiring beneficiaries who are eligible for TRICARE for Life (TFL), most of them elderly, to reorder all maintenance drugs through the TRICARE mail order plan for at least a year, after which they could opt out.

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Military Update: Graham forecasts House-Senate deal on Tricare fee hike

Sat, 04/28/2012 - 12:10am

Tom Philpott

The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review

The House armed services subcommittee on military personnel has declined to give the Obama administration new authority it sought to phase in higher Tricare fees on military retirees over the next four years and to peg future Tricare fee hikes to medical inflation nationwide.

But in marking up its version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, the subcommittee did not adopt discreet language, as it has in the past years, that would block any Tricare fee increases.

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Military Update: TriWest protests Tricare contract in West region

Sat, 03/31/2012 - 12:10am

Tom Philpott

The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review

Tricare beneficiaries across 21 western states won’t know for another three months whether TriWest Healthcare Alliance will continue to administer their healthcare benefit beyond March of next year.

After 16 years, TriWest lost its latest bid to continue to run the Tricare West Region under a third generation support contract, this one worth an estimated $20.5 billion over almost six years.

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Our Readers' Views: Attention military retirees:

Mon, 03/26/2012 - 12:10am

The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review

To the Editor:

To all military retirees: Department of Defense is proposing increases to TRICARE fees for military retirees. The proposal, if enacted, will substantially increase fees and co-pays as well as add an enrollment fee. To block this assault on TRICARE, Representative Ron Paul introduced H. R. 1092, “The Military Retirees Health Care Act”, which prohibits the Department of Defense from increasing TRICARE fees without congressional approval.

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Military Update: Defense health agency: Next step to curb medical costs

Sat, 03/10/2012 - 12:10am

The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review

efense officials have asked Congress to approve a new governance structure for the military health care system that, like higher TRICARE fees, would help to curb what, for a decade, have been runaway medical costs, officials explained.

The centerpiece of the plan is to elevate of the TRICARE Management Activity to a more powerful Defense Health Agency (DHA), with new authorities to use more effectively the military’s direct care system and to manage more carefully purchased care through TRICARE support contractors.

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Military Update: Raise Tricare fees or deepen force cuts, top doc warns

Sat, 03/03/2012 - 12:01am

By Tom Philpott

If Congress blocks Defense Department plans to raise Tricare fees for military retirees and beneficiary co-pays on drug prescriptions filled off base, the services will have to make even deeper cuts in force strength than now planned, the military’s top health official told lawmakers Tuesday.

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Military Update: Huge Tricare savings expected from higher drug co-pays

Fri, 02/24/2012 - 11:59pm

By Tom Philpott

The biggest knife for slicing Tricare costs off future defense budgets is not new and higher enrollment fees or deductibles proposed for retirees and their families who use one of the military’s health insurance options of TRICARE Prime, Standard, Extra or, for the elderly, Tricare for Life.

Those phased increases, as detailed here last week, would save a total of $23 billion over 10 years, mostly by sticking retirees with higher costs.

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Military Update: Retiree health fees, RX co-pays in bulls-eye of defense cuts

Sat, 02/18/2012 - 11:59pm

By Tom Philpott

Out-of-pocket health care costs for military retirees and for users of the TRICARE retail pharmacy network would jump next October if Congress approves President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget request delivered Monday.

Annual active duty pay raises also would be impacted, but not until January 2015 when raise caps would begin and last three years. The 2015 raise would be half of a percentage point, to be followed by a 1 percent across-the-board raise in 2016 and a 1.5 percent raise in 2017, if Congress accepts the administration’s plan to dampen compensation growth.

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Military Update: Tricare retiree benefits targeted as defense budgets fall

Sat, 02/04/2012 - 12:10am

The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review

As defense budgets grew over the past decade, Congress shrugged off complaints of runaway military health costs and blocked every proposal from the Bush administration to raise TRICARE fees sharply on retirees.

Defense budgets have stopped rising, however, and Defense officials today are sounding more confident that Congress will follow last October’s $5-a-month bump in TRICARE Prime enrollment fees for working-age retirees with more substantial fee increases for retirees of all ages.

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Possible BRAC leaves fort in flux

Area’s future could hinge on Department of Defense proposal

Fri, 01/27/2012 - 12:10am

Bill Hess

Herald/Review

One of the proposals for the Department of Defense to cut costs is having a Base Realignment and Closure round in fiscal year 2013, which begins on Oct. 1.

While there is a possible impact on Fort Huachuca, exactly what it could be — closure, reduction of missions or new units being assigned — is unknown.

The BRAC possibility is leading the co-chair of the Arizona Military Affairs Commission and former president of the Fort Huachuca 50 Tom Finnegan of Sierra Vista to issue a call to arms to not only defend the post but other military installations in the state.

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