April 3, 2006

Newslines (The Navy) - page 19 - Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant defense secretary for health affairs - The Pentagon's top health-care official, said in a March 20th interview that the plan to raise enrollment fees, deductibles and co-payments for retirees under age 65 has no specific effective date. However, the 2007 budget is based on the fee increases taking effect on Oct. 1 of this year. Dr. Winkenwerder also stated that congressional approval of the fee hikes is not needed to achieve about $7 billion of the $11.2 billion in planned cost savings. Still unclear is whether the Pentagon would start the fee increases anyway, knowing that Congress disapproves. Newslines (Pay & Benefits) - page 26 - The Thrift Savings Plan program is again operating normally after plan operators temporarily halted transactions on March 16 in response to an email cam that targeted the 3.6 million TSP participants. No TSP accounts appear to have been accessed illegally. Newslines (Washington) - page 34 - Rude, abrupt, and mostly wrong are the kinds of answers veterans and their families can expect when calling the Department of Veteran's Affairs for help. This comes out of a study that the VA did on itself. The current system is clearly not working. Some VA supervisors assign people to answer veteran's calls as a form of punishment. Further, the person's assigned to take the calls are under pressure to spend no more three minutes per phone call. Each person is expected to answer 64 calls per day, regardless of how long any one phone call may take to handle correctly. Jack McCoy, VA's associate deputy undersecretary said improvements are being made and that a better computer system is planned that will give customer-service providers easier access to information.

April 10, 2006

FastTrack - Page 6 – Service members are edging closer to having health savings accounts, which are becoming more common in the private sector as a way to use pre-tax dollars to pay for medical expenses. Military associations have been asking for them on behalf of service members, and the Defense Department has asked the White House to approve a health savings account program under Tricare in which troops could set aside money from their pay checks that would not be subject to income taxes as long as it was spent on qualified expenses. White House endorsement of the idea is not certain. Newslines - Page 23 – The vice chairman of a private security company astonished special operations forces representatives with a proposal to use his company as an army for hire for the world’s secondary battles. "It's an intriguing, good idea from a practical standpoint because we're low-cost and fast," said J. Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA. Blackwater is staffed primarily by former Special Forces soldiers and former CIA and FBI members, Black said. Black is the State Department's former coordinator for counterterrorism and former director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center.

April 17, 2006

FastTrack (Pay & Benefits) - page 6 - Better cheaper produce in commissaries. The Defense Commissary Agency has begun to purchase all produce through local contracting vendors. This results in about a 17% savings and a higher quality product being sold at commissaries worldwide. Previously, commissaries received their produce through The Defense Logistics Agency. Newslines (The Navy) - Page 8 - Congress is not happy with the proposed 2.2% pay raise, but a boost is unlikely. This will be the smallest increase in military pay in 13 years. On related issues, the article also points out that members of the Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation are recommending radical proposals to save money … delaying retired pay for active-duty military until age 60, eliminating allowance differences between married and single members, and changing the pay scale to rewards promotion over longevity. Newslines (Pay & Benefits) - page 21 - Military officials arguing for Tricare fee increases for military retirees are pitting active-duty members against the needs of retirees, reservists, and even private businesses. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Pentagon officials stated that if fees weren't increased one of the first things to go under would be treatment for active-duty members and their families. Members of the committee railed against some businesses and even some state and local governments for encouraging their Tricare eligible employees drop employer-provided coverage. Whether choosing Tricare over employer-provided coverage is a consumer choice or the result of this employer encouragement is unclear.

April 24, 2006

This edition contained no new information relevant to PHS officers..