washingtonscene
wise doesn’t arrive before my existing sup- ply is about to run out? If you are low or out of your medication and need immediate assistance, contact Express Scripts Customer Service at (877) 363-1303. Express Scripts can issue an override that will allow you to pick up your prescription at a retail pharmacy or send you a replacement order.
I live in a hot location. Won’t medications spoil if they’re left in a hot mailbox? The mail-order pharmacy takes special precautions with medications that can be affected by extreme temperatures. Coolers are used to protect certain medi- cations against temperature extremes. Beneficiaries can request specialty pro- cessing and scheduled delivery if there continues to be concern.
New Pay and O
Benefits Plan 11th QRMC lays out recommendations.
n June 21, the 11th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC) issued its report covering
recommendations for military pay, ben- efits, and retirement.
The QRMC asserted its preference for
“regular military compensation” (RMC) as the standard to construct a civilian-equiv- alent “salary” for the military. RMC in- cludes basic pay and the national average housing and subsistence allowances for the applicable grade, and it also includes the “tax advantage” realized because housing and subsistence allowances aren’t subject to federal income taxes. The 11th QRMC concluded that, in 2009,
RMC for the enlisted force corresponded to the 90th percentile of wages for civilians
in comparable pay cohorts and for officers, RMC corresponded to wages for the 83rd percentile of civilians with a bachelor’s or graduate-level degree. The report offers the following recom- mendations:
Special and incentive pays. Establish ca-
reer incentive pays (similar to career pays for aviators) for critical shortage specialties, including special operators, mental health professionals, linguists, and remotely pi- loted vehicle operators. Combat compensation. Tie combat-zone
pay more closely to the expected degree of danger by setting hostile-fire pay higher than imminent-danger pay and creating more than one level of imminent-danger pay. Eliminate the combat-zone tax ex- emption, and establish a flat refundable tax credit amount that would be the same for all people in a combat zone and would be received as a lump-sum credit on a ser- vicemember’s next tax return. Wounded warriors and caregivers. The QRMC made no specific recommenda- tions on wounded warriors’ compensation other than to monitor their long-term financial condition. The report calls for a closer alignment of DoD and VA caregiver programs by making eligibility criteria, disbursement rules, and tax treatment consistent between the programs. Survivor benefits. Modify the Depen- dency and Indemnity Compensation and the Survivor Benefit Plan offset to allow surviving spouses to receive that portion of the Survivor Benefit Plan annuity funded by retiree premiums (approximately 50 percent). Calculate Survivor Benefit Plan benefits for a reservist who dies while per- forming inactive duty training using the same criteria as for a servicemember who dies while on active duty. Reserve pay and
retirement.Convert the
current drill pay system to active duty com- pensation, so each reserve duty day would
*online: Find the full QRMC report at
http://militarypay.defense.gov/reports/qrmc. 38 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2012
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