washingtonscene
Effects on TRICARE For Life (TFL) and Medicare
Is TFL also considered qualifying cover-
age? Yes.
Medicare is cut $500 billion under
the new law. Won’t that cut payments to doctors and threaten TFL? Most of the
changes are relatively less painful and probably won’t affect TRICARE or TFL beneficiaries much. They include $118 billion from elimi-
COLA Watch
■ The CPI stayed flat in February. Inflation will need to rise by at least another 1.4 percent by Oct. 1 if retirees are to see any COLA for 2011.
nating the extra subsidy to the Medicare Advantage HMO program (which was sold to Congress as a cost-saver but actu- ally costs 14 percent more per person than standard Medicare), cutting about $150 billion from nonrural hospitals (which hospital associations say they can handle because expanding insurance cov- erage to most Americans means they won’t have to eat the cost of serving the uninsured), and cutting back abuses in medical equipment (under current sys- tems, Medicare will buy you a wheelchair you might only need a few months or allow a company to rent you one for life for a permanent condition). Most of us would probably consider eliminating these extras if it were our own money paying for them (which it actually is).
Are you saying the funding cut won’t
affect Medicare beneficiaries at all? No.
But the implications are probably more long-term than short-term. The real issue under national health care reform is the money from these Medicare savings will be used to fund expansion of health insur- ance coverage to those who don’t have it now instead of being used to pay for need- ed fixes to Medicare. Helping the uninsured is a good thing,
but using the “easy” Medicare savings for that means when baby boomers start swamping Medicare and Social Security soon, Congress will be forced to look at more painful ways to fund that need. That will be considered by the debt commission that is supposed to make
3 4 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R MAY 2 0 1 0
recommendations by Dec. 1 on how to reduce the national debt. We think that commission will create some tough op- tions for all Americans, and the military is unlikely to escape unscathed. We’ll keep you informed.
Medicare/TRICARE payments to doctors
Is it true the new legislation cuts pay-
ments to doctors by 21 percent? No. It’s the
previous law that calls for a 21-percent cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors as of April 1. At press time, Con- gress was working on separate legislation to prevent that from happening.
What’s the status of legislation to
reverse the 21-percent cut in Medicare/ TRICARE payments to doctors? As this
column was being written, the Senate had passed legislation putting off the date of the cut from April 1 until Oct. 1. The House had passed legislation put- ting the cut off until May 1. The Senate was working to pass the May 1 legislation and then turn to a more long-term fix. Getting the physician payment problem fixed is MOAA’s No. 1 health care prior- ity, as it threatens health care access for all of our members.
Are there any changes in the new law
that will affect payments to providers?
There are some changes to periodic “market basket” and other assumptions that affect annual adjustments. These tend to dampen annual increases over time, assuming productivity improves. If the expected productivity increases don’t materialize, Congress might have to make other adjustments. On the other hand, the new law raises payments for primary care.
Does the new law affect Part B premi-
ums? For some people it will, because it freezes income thresholds for means- testing Part B premiums at current levels through the end of this decade. Previ- ously, the thresholds ($85,000 a year for
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