March 05, 2010
| 21% Cut Delayed 30 Days On Tuesday the President signed legislation that temporarily delayed a scheduled 21% cut in Medicare/TRICARE payments to doctors – but only until April 1. |
| MOAA Testifies on Veteran & Caregiver Priorities At a joint hearing before the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees, CDR René Campos (USN-Ret) highlighted MOAA’s 2010 priorities for veterans, wounded-disabled, their families, caregivers, and survivors. |
| Military Spouses Left Hanging More than 60 legislators joined MOAA in urging the Defense Department to reinstate funding for the military’s new spouse career development program. The recent abrupt suspension of the program has left thousands of spouses on the hook for pending training. |
21% Cut Delayed 30 Days
On Tuesday the President signed legislation that temporarily delayed a scheduled 21% cut in Medicare/TRICARE payments to doctors – but only until April 1.
The bill also provides relief from the $1,860 Medicare therapy coverage cap until April 1, helping many stroke and accident victims whose 2010 expenses were already bumping against the cap.
Now, the Senate is working on another fix that would further delay the doctor payment cut until Oct. 1 and extend the therapy cap relief through the end of the year. The Oct. 1 date is significant, since few legislators will want to allow a 21% Medicare cut a month before the election.
MOAA Testifies on Veteran & Caregiver Priorities
On March 4, MOAA joined several veterans’ organizations at a joint Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees’ hearing to testify on 2010 priorities for VA health care and benefit programs.
Government Relations Deputy Director CDR René Campos (USN-Ret) urged the Committees to pass several pending provisions aimed at strengthening protections, particularly care and support for family-caregivers, the wounded and disabled, and women veterans. She also highlighted the urgency of improving access to mental health services, eliminating the VA claims backlog, and eliminating inequities in survivor compensation.
House Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) was supportive, stating, “Since Chairman Akaka and I have been chairs of this Committee, we have increased the health care budget by almost $19 billion, a 55 percent increase.” He went on to say more must be done though to ensure funds get down to the facilities in a more effective and efficient manner because veterans continue to wait too long and travel to far to get needed care.
Legislators assured the organizations that they would continue to be strong advocates for veterans and their families. Chairman Filner and other committee members specifically referenced Campos’ comments on several topics:
- Women Veterans: “VA has done some creative workarounds to meet the increased demands of care for women veterans, but more needs to be done to remove current barriers to their medical care,” said Campos.
Filner said he plans to introduce a Women Veterans Bill of Rights to address women veterans’ unique needs.
- Mental Health: The VA must expand mental health services through innovative approaches, including a campaign to stamp out the stigma associated with seeking help.
The Committee was particularly interested in Campos’ example of Virginia’s Wounded Warrior Program. Championed by MOAA’s Richmond Chapter in collaboration with the governor’s office and veterans and state-community leaders, it leverages government and community resources to provide mental health care and support to veterans and their families.
- Post 9/11 GI Bill: Campos strongly recommended improving the Post-9/11 GI Bill to include job training, on-the-job training and apprenticeship authority as well as upgrades to the current VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment and Survivors and Dependents’ Educational Assistance Programs.
Chairman Filner assured attendees that the Committee would seek to fix those problems.
Military Spouses Left Hanging
Last
week we reported on MOAA’s efforts to restart the suspended Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAA). The MyCAA program was authorized by Congress last year to provide funding for education, training, certification and credentialing for military spouses who suffer career disadvantages as a result of military-directed relocations.
The program was abruptly suspended by Pentagon officials after more than 130,000 spouses signed up for it. Leadership’s concern was that the program might exceed the funding allocated to it.
But the no-notice suspension and lack of individual notification to the affected spouses left thousands of spouses dangling without the financial support they had counted on, with many already committed to taking coursework or credentialing programs.
In that regard, more than 30% use the program for certification and licensure, which poses big challenges for nurses, teachers, lawyers and other professionals who have to meet new state requirements when their military sponsors are reassigned to a different state.
Last week’s legislative update reported that the House Congressional Military Family Caucus was preparing a letter urging the Secretary of Defense to reinstate the program.
MOAA’s publicity of this initiative helped generate 67 legislator signatures on the final Caucus letter that went to the Pentagon this week.
We hope there will be an update soon on the program’s outlook. We’ll keep you posted.
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