Health Care Panel Releases Proposals

By: fedweek

The Defense Department Task Force on the Future of Military Health Care released a preview of its interim report on May 23. The panel recommends raising co-payments on prescriptions filled by the Tricare retail pharmacy network in order to influence beneficiaries to use the mail-order system. It also would phase in Tricare fee increases over three to five years, instead of the two-year period originally proposed by DoD. And it would index Tricare fees and deductibles in order to tie them to increases in health care costs. In a surprise move, the task force would establish periodic adjustments to the Tricare catastrophic cap, currently $1,000 for active-duty families and $3,000 of other families. It also would institute a tiered fee structure based upon rank. The interim report itself was due to the Secretary of Defense and the Congress by May 31.