Federal Daily - December 11, 2008

Shinseki Nomination Wins Plaudits

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) on Dec. 8 applauded the nomination of retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to head the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Shinseki, 66, a four-star general and 38-year veteran, was nominated on Dec. 7 to become the next VA secretary by President-elect Barack Obama. AFGE, which represents 150,000 employees within the VA, said it looked forward to working with Shinseki. AFGE said the choice of Shinseki represents “a clear break from the past eight years in which the Bush Administration sought to dismantle the VA through the use of fee-basis contract care and undercut the agency by continually understaffing and underfunding the agency.” The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), an advocacy group supporting injured vets, also applauded the nomination, and noted that Shinseki will have to address a full slate of challenges at VA—including coming up with a way to improve caregiver compensation for families of the severely wounded, and addressing shortcomings in VA’s disability claims process. According to government reports, today many vets wait an average of six months for their claims to be processed, and wait as long as two years for an appeal if their claims are denied. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=914 or www.woundedwarriorproject.org/.

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Report: Consumers and Insurers Pay $88.8 Billion ‘Hidden Tax’

Consumers and private health insurers pay a “hidden tax” of $88.8 billion each year because government programs like Medicare and Medicaid fail to pay enough to doctors and hospitals, said a report released Dec. 9 by Milliman, Inc. This hidden tax or “cost shift” is driven by low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and physicians, which creates a health care payment gap that privately insured employers and consumers must close, the report said. The Milliman study measured the difference between actual payment rates and average payment rates for Medicare, Medicaid and private payers; it did not assess appropriate levels of payment. The report noted that if Medicare and Medicaid paid higher rates, commercial payers could pay lower rates with health care providers still achieving the same overall reimbursement. Milliman estimated that the cost shift added an estimated $1,512, or 10.6 percent, to the average annual premium for a privately insured family of four. The report was sponsored by industry groups like the American Hospital Association and America’s Health Insurance Plans. To see more, go to: www.ahip.org/content/pressrelease.aspx?docid=25218 or www.wbgh.org/pressrelease.cfm?ID=115.

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DoD Approves Legal Alien Enlistment Program

DoD announced on Dec. 5 that it has approved a demonstration program allowing legal aliens to enlist for military service if they fill mission-critical positions in areas like health care and foreign language translation. The initiative expands non-citizen eligibility for military service to include not only green card holders, but also those visa holders legally present in the United States, such as doctors, nurses and students. Participants would be eligible—as are all others who serve in the military—for accelerated citizenship, which allows expedited naturalization for non-citizens who serve.  Specifically, DoD is looking for health care professionals with training in needed medical specialties (such physicians and nurses) and people with skills in certain strategic foreign languages and cultures. The DoD action is the first step in the process—the separate services will evaluate their needs to see if they want to adopt the 12-month demo project, DoD said. Under the pilot program, each service will be allowed to enlist up to 1,000 people. After one year, the program will be evaluated to determine if it improves overall military readiness. “This pilot seeks to provide yet another opportunity to fill the gaps with people who are highly qualified and eager to serve this nation,” said Bill Carr, deputy under secretary of defense for military personnel policy. To see more, go to: www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12384.

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