thedrifter
03-27-07, 02:49 PM
Nominee: Tricare fee hikes not sole option
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 27, 2007 14:13:14 EDT
Troops and families can help hold down health care costs by taking greater responsibility for and becoming more involved in their care, the physician likely to become the Defense Department’s top health care official told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.
S. Ward Casscells III was responding to a question from Sen. John Warner, R-Va., about how he’d reconcile his written response to committee questions that low cost to beneficiaries is one of the strengths of Tricare, the military’s health care system, when senior defense officials have said the current system is unsustainable without an increase in some patient fees and deductibles.
“I share your concern,” Casscells said. “If I understand you correctly, increasing co-pays and deductibles, particularly at this time, runs the risk of making it harder for us to recruit and retain the very best people. … They’re willing to sleep in tents, on cots. They don’t demand the Ritz, but they would like, and deserve, the very best medical care.
“I know that the co-pays and the deductibles have been flat for 12 or 13 years, and there’s understandable interest in raising them, as the private sector is raising theirs,” Casscells said. “But … there are other efficiencies which can be sought.”
Casscells said the more service members and their families get involved in or “take ownership of” their care as patients, “the more we utilize electronic records, the more we utilize disease management tools [Web-based medical reference material], Web-based discussion groups, confidential chat rooms, the more people help themselves and help each other, these are often low-cost opportunities for savings,” Casscells said.
Casscells, 55, said being nominated to become assistant secretary of defense for health affairs “is, for me, the honor of a lifetime” and that the job would be a position “of enormous personal significance to me.”
The current assistant secretary, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., is stepping down and returning to the private sector, a move he said had been long-planned and was unrelated to the recent outpatient care scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
In mid-2005, Casscells, a University of Houston surgeon and researcher, took the unusual step of joining the Army Reserve at age 53, receiving a commission as a lieutenant colonel. He has since been promoted to colonel, and in January returned from a three-month mobilization in Iraq.
He called the Walter Reed problems “very, very frustrating.”
“And if it’s frustrating for a colonel, you can imagine how frustrating it is for a sergeant or a corporal who has a head injury and their family is a thousand miles away. We’ve got to fix that and make it fair and fast.”
Warner also reiterated his opposition to attempts to amend an approved recommendation from a federal base-closure commission to close Walter Reed by 2011 and integrate it into the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., as some lawmakers have suggested. Warner said he wants to maintain the “integrity” of the base-closure process, which is historically an all-or-nothing proposition to prevent tinkering and lobbying by individual lawmakers.
Other nominees who appeared before the committee Tuesday included Claude Kicklighter to become the Defense Department Inspector General; William Ostendorff to be principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration; and James Clapper Jr. to be under secretary of defense for intelligence.
The hearing wasn’t without its lighter moments. While introducing his family, Casscells made reference to the reduction in salary that the new job would bring, saying his kids “are well aware that this would mean a cut in their allowance.”
At another point, Warner, a Korean War-era Marine, jokingly asked Clapper why he served briefly in the Marines before switching to the Air Force, from which he retired as a lieutenant general in 1995.
Clapper replied that he was “very proud” of his service in the Marine Corps but that he made the change “because I grew up in the intelligence business … and there were opportunities to do that line of work in the Air Force.”
“You’re not suggesting that the Marines would in any way fail to have a high intelligence quota?” Warner asked in jest, breaking up the hearing room and drowning out Clapper’s denial.
“And I’m pleased and proud to serve as a straight man for you anytime,” Clapper quipped to Warner.
Ellie
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 27, 2007 14:13:14 EDT
Troops and families can help hold down health care costs by taking greater responsibility for and becoming more involved in their care, the physician likely to become the Defense Department’s top health care official told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.
S. Ward Casscells III was responding to a question from Sen. John Warner, R-Va., about how he’d reconcile his written response to committee questions that low cost to beneficiaries is one of the strengths of Tricare, the military’s health care system, when senior defense officials have said the current system is unsustainable without an increase in some patient fees and deductibles.
“I share your concern,” Casscells said. “If I understand you correctly, increasing co-pays and deductibles, particularly at this time, runs the risk of making it harder for us to recruit and retain the very best people. … They’re willing to sleep in tents, on cots. They don’t demand the Ritz, but they would like, and deserve, the very best medical care.
“I know that the co-pays and the deductibles have been flat for 12 or 13 years, and there’s understandable interest in raising them, as the private sector is raising theirs,” Casscells said. “But … there are other efficiencies which can be sought.”
Casscells said the more service members and their families get involved in or “take ownership of” their care as patients, “the more we utilize electronic records, the more we utilize disease management tools [Web-based medical reference material], Web-based discussion groups, confidential chat rooms, the more people help themselves and help each other, these are often low-cost opportunities for savings,” Casscells said.
Casscells, 55, said being nominated to become assistant secretary of defense for health affairs “is, for me, the honor of a lifetime” and that the job would be a position “of enormous personal significance to me.”
The current assistant secretary, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., is stepping down and returning to the private sector, a move he said had been long-planned and was unrelated to the recent outpatient care scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
In mid-2005, Casscells, a University of Houston surgeon and researcher, took the unusual step of joining the Army Reserve at age 53, receiving a commission as a lieutenant colonel. He has since been promoted to colonel, and in January returned from a three-month mobilization in Iraq.
He called the Walter Reed problems “very, very frustrating.”
“And if it’s frustrating for a colonel, you can imagine how frustrating it is for a sergeant or a corporal who has a head injury and their family is a thousand miles away. We’ve got to fix that and make it fair and fast.”
Warner also reiterated his opposition to attempts to amend an approved recommendation from a federal base-closure commission to close Walter Reed by 2011 and integrate it into the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., as some lawmakers have suggested. Warner said he wants to maintain the “integrity” of the base-closure process, which is historically an all-or-nothing proposition to prevent tinkering and lobbying by individual lawmakers.
Other nominees who appeared before the committee Tuesday included Claude Kicklighter to become the Defense Department Inspector General; William Ostendorff to be principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration; and James Clapper Jr. to be under secretary of defense for intelligence.
The hearing wasn’t without its lighter moments. While introducing his family, Casscells made reference to the reduction in salary that the new job would bring, saying his kids “are well aware that this would mean a cut in their allowance.”
At another point, Warner, a Korean War-era Marine, jokingly asked Clapper why he served briefly in the Marines before switching to the Air Force, from which he retired as a lieutenant general in 1995.
Clapper replied that he was “very proud” of his service in the Marine Corps but that he made the change “because I grew up in the intelligence business … and there were opportunities to do that line of work in the Air Force.”
“You’re not suggesting that the Marines would in any way fail to have a high intelligence quota?” Warner asked in jest, breaking up the hearing room and drowning out Clapper’s denial.
“And I’m pleased and proud to serve as a straight man for you anytime,” Clapper quipped to Warner.
Ellie