washington scene
For brand-name medications, the cost is $13 for a 90 day refill through mail-order versus $17 for a 30-day refill at a retail store.
The mandate applies to maintenance medications only. Initial prescriptions can be filled at a retail store, and beneficiaries can fill up to two 30-day refills at a retail store during the transition.
Beneficiaries living near a military hospital or clinic can continue to fill their prescriptions there and do not need to enroll in the mail-order program. Additionally, nursing home patients and those with other prescription coverage also are exempt.
TRICARE has started reaching out to affected beneficiaries. You can enroll online at
www.express-scripts.com/tricare or by phone at (877) 363-1303.
Individual waivers to opt out of the mail-order requirement may be granted on a case-by-case basis because of personal need or hardship, emergency, or other special circumstance.
SecDef to Trim His Staff
Cuts to the Office of the Secretary of Defense will save $1 billion.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced Dec. 3, 2013, new funding and personnel cuts for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Cuts include a 20-percent reduction in the operating budget and an 8-percent reduction in the total OSD workforce over the next five years. He estimates the cuts will save at least $1 billion over the next five years.
“With the Pentagon confronting historically deep and steep and abrupt spending reductions after a decade of significant budget growth, there is a clear need … to pare back overhead and streamline headquarters across this department,” Hagel said during a press conference.
In a memo issued to senior DoD leadership, Hagel said much of the savings will be achieved by using fewer contractors and by significant reductions of civilian personnel.
The final details of the planned cutbacks will not be available until the president submits his budget request next February. But changes already announced include:
■ restructuring, combining, and realigning a series of offices;
■ transferring responsibility for business IT systems to DoD’s chief information officer;
■ directing the Office of Net Assessment to report to the undersecretary of defense for policy;
■ rebalancing resources within the Office of Personnel and Readiness; and
■ directing the undersecretary of defense for intelligence to plan how the organization should evolve after the post-9/11 drawdown.
These changes will begin immediately and be fully implemented by Jan. 1, 2015.
Combatant commanders, service chiefs, and other headquarters across DoD also are finalizing their own organizational plans to meet the 20-percent budget-cut requirements for all major DoD headquarters dictated by Hagel following this year’s Strategic Choices and Management Review.
MO
— Contributors are Col. Mike Hayden, USAF (Ret), director; Col. Mike Barron, USA (Ret); Col. Bob Norton, USA (Ret); Capt. Kathy Beasley, USN (Ret); Col. Phil Odom, USAF (Ret); Col. Catherine Mozden Lewis, ARNG (Ret); Karen Golden; Matt Murphy; and Jamie Naughton, MOAA’s Government Relations Department. To subscribe to MOAA’s Legislative Update, visit
www.moaa.org/email.
44 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2014
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