washingtonscene
mented the extended coverage — without charging any extra premium. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program is doing the same for children of federal ci- vilians. If they already have family cover- age, there won’t be any extra charge to add the extra dependent(s). To MOAA, that changes the equity landscape. Military parents under the new law shouldn’t get socked with extra pre- miums if civilian parents aren’t. For this reason, MOAA is working with legislators to seek an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill to allow children of currently serving and retired servicemembers to continue under TRI- CARE coverage until age 26 without an additional premium.
Medicare/ TRICARE Cuts Halted
December deadline looms. F
or weeks, MOAA urged members to e-mail their representatives to quickly pass legislation approved
by the Senate (H.R. 3962) to restore full Medicare/TRICARE payments to doctors through the end of November 2010. Initially, House leaders planned to delay
action on that measure until the Senate passed a broader jobs bill (H.R. 4213). After more than 17,000 MOAA mem- bers contacted their representatives, House leaders finally brought up and passed the bill June 24, and the president signed it into law shortly thereafter. The law reverses a 21-percent payment
cut the flawed statutory payment formula had imposed on Medicare as of June 1. Medicare held up processing claims for more than two weeks beyond that date in hopes of quick Hill action but finally had to
4 0 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R S E P T EMB E R 2 0 1 0
implement the reduced payments for claims since June 1 as Congress dragged its feet. By the time you read this column,
Medicare will have reprocessed the affect- ed claims and paid doctors the difference. TRICARE never got to the point of implementing the 21-percent cut, as TRI- CARE payment changes normally trail Medicare’s by 30 to 60 days. MOAA appreciates Congress’ action
(however tardy) to stave off the cuts, but the unfortunate reality is the recent leg- islation only kicked the problem down- stream six months until after the election — meaning Congress will have to act again in the coming months to keep the 21-per- cent cut from being reinstated as of Dec. 1. In the meantime, many thanks are due to the thousands of MOAA members who helped Congress get off the dime — again — on this crucial health care issue. But there will be little time to rest on
your laurels, because we’ll need to call on you again very soon.
Disability
Setback Concurrent receipt fix is dropped.
I
n July, MOAA was encouraged about prospects for near-term concurrent receipt progress when newly appointed
Sen. Carte Goodwin (
D-W.Va.) provided the 60th vote needed for Senate passage of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213). Already passed by the House, the bill in-
cluded President Obama’s proposal to phase out the disability offset to military retired pay for severely disabled medical retirees. But last-minute negotiations to nail
down the necessary votes led to removal of all provisions — including the concur- rent receipt fix — other than the extension
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