[TFL] House Tricare Plan 'Least Evil'

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To: <TFL@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:15:45 -0500
Retirees: House Tricare Plan 'Least Evil'

By Patricia Kime - Staff writer

Posted : Monday Jul 30, 2012 12:28:21 EDT

 

Military retirees overwhelmingly support a House plan that would require senior
Tricare beneficiaries to use mail order for their routine prescriptions in
exchange for limiting future Tricare pharmacy fee increases, according to a new
survey.

 

The survey, by the Military Officers Association of America, asked retirees to
choose between the House proposal and a Senate-backed Pentagon plan with higher
increases. In response, 97 percent of nearly 7,000 retirees and their spouses
said they support the House proposal.

 

Although the House plan would raise co-payments in 2013 on brand-name
medications at retail stores and through mail order, the increases would be
smaller than those called for by the Defense Department, and the House plan
would cap future fee increases to no more than the annual cost-of-living
adjustment in military retired pay.

 

To offset the lower costs in the House plan, Tricare for Life beneficiaries
would have to use mail order for their maintenance prescriptions for at least a
year.

 

Just 3 percent of respondents supported the Senate's plan, based on the Defense
Department 2013 budget proposal, that would more than double co-payments for
brand-name drugs at retail pharmacies in 2013 and raise those fees by 30 percent
by 2017.

 

The Senate plan does not limit access to retail pharmacies for any
beneficiaries.

 

"Our data shows if you give people the option of lower co-payments, that's what
they want," said retired Air Force Col. Steve Strobridge, MOAA's director of
government relations.

 

More than 85 percent of those who responded to the survey said they were over
age 65 and would be affected by the mail-order requirement for routine
medications.

 

Waivers would be possible, however, and beneficiaries could opt out of the
mail-order program after a year, according to the House plan.

 

Nearly 50 percent of those surveyed said they already use mail order for
maintenance prescriptions. The mail-order program offers 90-day supplies of
prescription medications for the same co-payment as a 30-day supply obtained at
retail pharmacies.

 

More than 92 percent who said they have tried Tricare's mail-order option report
being "very satisfied" or "mostly satisfied" with it.

 

The survey, titled "Which Rx prescription option is 'least evil?' " was emailed
to 130,000 people.

 

Strobridge said MOAA doesn't find either Tricare pharmacy proposal "particularly
attractive," but wanted to see what its members found important.

 

"While nobody's enthused about a one-year mandatory mail-order test, almost
everyone agrees it's the lesser of the evils if it buys the lower prescription
co-pays," Strobridge said.

 

The House and Senate will reconcile the differences in their proposed defense
spending bills before a final budget is approved.

 

(You may view\post comments on this article at
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/07/military-retirees-say-house-tricare-plan-i
s-least-evil-073012w/)

 

 

 

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SOURCE:  Army Times article at
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/07/military-retirees-say-house-tricare-plan-i
s-least-evil-073012w/

 

 

 

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[TFL] House Tricare Plan 'Least Evil'

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