AUSA President GEN Gordon R. Sullivan, USA, Ret., sent a letter to members of the Senate urging them quickly pass their version of H.R. 4213, a bill that contains language which would reverse the 21 percent reduction in the Medicare Physician Payment rate. 

The rate took effect on June 1.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services first told physicians to hold claims for Medicare reimbursement for 10 business days (June 14) “to avoid disruption in the delivery of health care services to beneficiaries and payment of claims for physicians.”  Now, because of the Senate’s failure to pass the measure, Medicare said today that it will hold claims until June 18, giving lawmakers four more days to act.

What does that mean for TRICARE?  Nothing yet.  TRICARE normally implements payment changes about a month after Medicare does.  As long as Congress fixes the problem within that time frame, payments to doctors who treat TRICARE patients will continue without delay.

In any event, time is up.  Please add your voice to GEN Sullivan’s and urge your Senator to pass this critical legislation and end this monthly exercise.  Go to the AUSA website, www.ausa.org, click on “Contact Congress”, type in your zip code beside “Elected Officials”, and scroll down to “Reverse the 21% Medicare/TRICARE Payment Cut”.

ARMY SECRETARY DISCUSSES THE WAY AHEAD

Key congressional staff members joined Army and defense industry leaders at a breakfast last week to hear the Secretary of the Army give his view of where the Army is headed. 

Secretary John McHugh speaking at AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare breakfast told the audience that after being engaged in two land wars for almost a decade, the service’s ability to produce “that versatile soldier is starting to fray,” and it was taking steps to address that challenge.

McHugh said that he was recently struck by the comparison of what the Army spent on the Future Combat System (about $17 billion) versus its investment in the Military Academy’s 2010 graduating class of about 1,000 cadets “about 1 percent” of the $17 billion.  “I don’t say we don’t need to modernize,” but the “Army’s success on future battlefields will be assured by the creativity and agility” of its leaders.

McHugh, acknowledging a letter from Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the Training and Doctrine Command, to GEN George W. Casey Jr., chief of staff, that expressed his concerns about the generating force, said it was time “for a holistic approach” in reviewing the generating force, including the personnel system.

“This is hardly a new challenge” and “it is not going to be easy” to align the generating force with the Army Force Generation model and the brigade-centric operational force.  At the same time, the Army is confronting the challenges of trying to extend dwell time between deployments and work on issues – suicide, alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence -- brought on by the continued high operating tempo in fighting two land wars.

“We have to be energized” in reviewing the needs of the generating force.

Looking back to 2000, he said defense planners were not focusing on what became today’s threat.  Instead, they were looking at missile defense rather than an adaptive enemy that was not defending a homeland, an enemy that operates in a highly decentralized environment and is driven by an ideology that is thousands of years old.

“The thinking soldier finds the breech.”  Adding “making an agile, flexible leader that’s what a good Army does.  Army leaders and Army thinkers are equally as important as a new weapons system.”

In answer to a question, McHugh said, “We have begun the process” of reviewing overhead and how to cut it and shift those funds to operational needs as outlined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a recent speech in Abilene, Kan.  “We’re excited about it because we can keep the money.”

Gates is looking for about $100 billion in savings over the next five years.

AUSA ON THE HILL

AUSA Director of Government Affairs, Bill Loper, briefed the 15-member Kansas Governor's Military Council (GMC) on Capitol Hill during their Washington visit last week.  Joining other military associations, he presented AUSA's legislative agenda to the group who later in the day met with the Kansas delegation. 

 During the meeting, Loper urged the group to ask their members to support increased defense spending and additional authorized and funded end strength for the Army among other issues.  He also thanked them for their support of the two Army installations located in Kansas, Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth, along with the 26 Reserve Centers and 56 Army National Guard armories.


SENATE NATIONAL GUARD CAUCUS LEADERS: $870 MILLION NEEDED TO ADDRESS GUARD AND RESERVE EQUIPMENT SHORTFALLS

The co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus are requesting an additional $870 million to help the National Guard and reserve address critical equipment shortfalls. 

In a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee leaders, Caucus Co-Chairs Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Kit Bond, R-Mo., outlined some of their more-pressing concerns. 

The Army National Guard, for example, faces a $5.2 billion shortfall in its truck inventory and needs at least $200 million for new Blackhawk helicopters for medical evacuation missions. The letter also states that the Army National Guard soldiers need $75 million for Improved Outer Tactical Vests. 

Bond and Leahy have asked for added funds for the National Guard and reserve to be included in the Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2011. The increased funding would go toward equipment needed for both domestic and overseas missions.  The Senators have a successful track record in securing added funding over the last several years.  They obtained more than $1 billion fiscal in 2009 and $950 million in fiscal 2010. 

With the National Guard and reserve heavily engaged in responding to natural disasters, domestic emergencies and overseas operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other foreign locations, both forces have greater equipment needs in order to achieve full readiness.  Despite the variety of roles filled by the Guard and reserve, and the increases that Leahy and Bond have achieved in each of the last several years, both forces still face equipment shortfalls.