washingtonscene
New Medical Payment System
Congress recently passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which will pay medical providers for the value of the care they deliver, in- stead of the fee-for- service model that pays a flat fee for each appointment or service. The in- tent of value-based care is to move toward linking pay- ments to a patient’s health outcomes and quality of care. The performance of a provider will be compiled into a composite per- formance score that ultimately will determine their payment adjust- ment. Scores above or below average will generate cor- responding ad- justments to the provider’s Medicare Part B payments.
Because the committee aims to keep the cemetery active for centuries to come, one proposed option is to drastically limit eligibility in the near term. Current rules permit anyone with an
honorable discharge and at least one day of active duty service to be interred or inurned at ANC. That’s a more lenient eligibility standard than what is used for other veterans’ cemeteries, which can re- quire at least 24 months’ service. The cemetery is undergoing two ex- pansion projects to add 27 acres, which will be completed next year. Plans under way (but not finalized) are expected to add another 40 acres by 2022. With these additions, the date by which
ANC would reach capacity at current burial rates would be extended from 2041 to 2050. Additional expansion is an option
but won’t be easy. According to a report presented to the committee, the cem- etery could remain open until 2337 if it can partially expand and if eligibility is restricted soon to active duty deaths and for veterans with qualifying awards. If retirees remain eligible, the cemetery will reach maximum capacity in 2072. “MOAA would like to see ANC remain open and active well into the future,” says former MOAA Vice President of Govern- ment Relations Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF (Ret). “We don’t have a problem reserving a set number of plots for future Medal of Honor recipients and combat deaths. But we don’t think an 80-year old retiree who’s made plans for an Arlington burial should lose eligibility to reserve space for an active duty member who dies in a car accident 150 or 200 years from now. “A lot can change over 50 or 75 years,”
Strobridge continues. “MOAA and other military and veterans’ associations have told the committee we think all options for further expansion should be pursued
30 MILITARY OFFICER JANUARY 2017
before we start turning away older vets who planned for ANC interment. We know procuring land can take a long time, so that process should start sooner rather than later.”
Your Voice
deep end with worry or joy, we should remember a major change in philosophi- cal leadership is nothing new for the U.S. The elections of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all represented major changes of course from their predecessors. None solved all of our national problems, and none sent the country careening off the rails. This is because we don’t give up our power to in- fluence our national leaders just because an election is over. Every administration — of either party — has made proposals the public hasn’t liked. MOAA members have barraged their legislators with postcards, letters, emails, and tweets to support or oppose initiatives on Medicare, Social Security, COLAs, TRI- CARE, concurrent receipt, survivor ben- efits, pay raises, commissaries, and more. Legislators haven’t listened in every
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case, but they have more often than not. With 535 individual senators and representatives, no doubt they will pro- pose some seemingly crazy ideas in the coming Congress, but it’s also certain nonsensical proposals will generate a barrage of grassroots input to rebalance the national sanity meter.
Matters Election Day is not the only time to make your opinion known.
peculation is everywhere about what the election results mean. But before anybody goes off the
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