TRICARE

Defense Deputy Secretary Ashton Carter said for every dollar lawmakers add to the military’s budget or for every program they continue that the Pentagon wants to cancel, it requires cuts elsewhere. He also called sequestration irrational and said DoD is not planning for it.

Senate panel rejects Air Force’s proposed decreases to National Guard aircraft and personnel, orders cutbacks in DoD civilian and contractor personnel and imposes contractor salary caps.

The Defense Department had proposed having patients pay up to 14 percent of their health care costs by 2017, compared with 10 percent now.

As part of the annual Defense authorization bill, House lawmakers will take up a provision designed to let federal employees gain experience and share expertise while working temporarily in other agencies.

Changes to the TRICARE Dental Program will mean some National Guard and Reserve members will have to pay their premiums the old-fashioned way.

House military personnel subcommittee asserts retirees have already paid for their health care via their military service, omits DoD proposal to hike TRICARE fees.

The Pentagon is telling lawmakers military retirees’ share of health care costs is going to have to increase if it’s going to meet the budget targets Congress and the President handed over with last year’s budget control act.

Mary Rosado, the vice president of federal government affairs at Express Scripts, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss a proposed merger between prescription managers.

After computer tapes containing the health records of nearly 5 million military clinic patients were stolen from a contractor’s car, TRICARE has directed the contractor, SAIC, to provide one year of credit monitoring for those who may have been affected by the breach.

Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris to discuss changes to military retirement.