JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. –
Medicare Improvements for 2011
Many older military retirees in the greater Washington D.C.- Baltimore area depend on TRICARE for Life as their predominant medical resource. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R.) 3590), signed into law March 23, along with a companion reconciliation act, has a couple of Medicare changes which will benefit TFL participants who rely on Medicare.
Prior to this act, Medicare provided only one cost-free wellness exam - this at the first enroll-ment into the program. As of Jan 1, the program will provide for a wellness exam, to include a health risk assessment, every year.
The act also increases the number of other preventive and screening services Medicare will provide.
To obtain further information on TFL and on Medicare go to: www.military.com/benefits. look under Tricare/Militrary Health Care. You can also go to: http://www.medicare.gov
Phone: TFL - 1-866-773-0404, 1-866-363-5433 (Spanish) Medicare -1-800-633-4227
VA Testing "Paperless" Processing Of Claims
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has selected its regional benefits office in Providence, R.I., to test a paperless system and new procedures to improve processing of Veterans' claims for disability compensation.
This test program marks a major milestone in VA's move to paperless processing, said
Mr.Eric K. Shinseki.
The Providence pilot is part of the Veterans Benefits Management System, one of more than three dozen initiatives in progress at VA to break the back of the backlog. Secretary Shinseki has set a goal that by 2015 VA will process all claims within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy.
NOTE: VA forms can be downloaded at: www.va.gov. Enter VA Forms in the search block.
SURVIVOR BENEFITS PLAN (SBP) ANNUITANTS - CERTIFICATE OF ELIGIBILITY
We often get calls from anxious SBP annuitants whose annuity checks have stopped. This can create real difficulties for many survivors who rely on the annuity to meet daily living expenses. The most common cause for this is the failure of the annuitant to return the Certificate of Eligibility (COE) sent annually by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) to all annuitants, regardless of age, 60-90 days before their birthday. Although another COE is sent if not received in 60 days, the account is suspended if the signed COE is not received by DFAS within 90 days of the first mailing. The purpose of the COE is to verify annuitant addresses, continued eligibility and other account information. Once completed, the form must be returned to DFAS in the enclosed envelope or by updating an online myPay account (http://www.dfas.mil/) promptly to avoid any disruption in payments. Any questions, call DFAS at 1-800-321-1080.
The Retiree Activities Office is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. You may visit our office in room A-200A, 1535 Command Dr., call us at 301-981-2726 or e-mail us at rao@andrews.af.mil.
We recommend you call the office prior to visiting us to ensure someone is on duty. We have a Web site at http://www.andrews.af.mil click on ''Retirees" on the right side of the page. There you will find a wealth of information that is of interest to you.
Back copies of all "Retiree Activities Corner" articles are available on-line. Go to our Retirees webpage and follow the instructions under the heading "Newspaper Column".