Time Makes Right Choice for Person of the Year, but Something is Missing
Col. S. Clinton Hinote, Posted on December 17, 2014
Time magazine recently awarded Person of the Year honors to “the Ebola Fighters.”Bravo…good choice. As I’ve written elsewhere, it is right to honor those who volunteer to fight this disease as heroes, because they are. I’m glad that Time has recognized their willingness to put service before self.
While Time celebrates those who volunteer to serve, the magazine should have devoted a line or two to some who had little choice in the matter—the thousands of U.S. military members who have deployed to west Africa.In September, the president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, wrote to President Obama with a desperate request for assistance. “Without more direct help from your government, we will lose this battle against Ebola,” she pleaded. “Only governments like yours have the resources and assets to deploy at the pace required to arrest the spread.” What the Liberian president surely knew is that only the U.S. military had the capability to respond to save her country.
(Only first two paragraphs of Colonel Hinton’s essay are printed here. Remainder can be found at:
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Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler: Join best-selling author and adventurer Bruce Feiler as he travels to the Catholic shrine of Lourdes with American veterans seeking healing.
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Tricare limits on purchase of prescriptions
Military Times, by Patricia Kime, Staff Writer December 28, 2014
Tricare beneficiaries who take name-brand medications for chronic conditions — such as Lipitor or Crestor to lower cholesterol, Advair for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or Prozac for depression — must fill them at a military treatment facility or through the Tricare Mail Order Pharmacy system starting Oct. 1.
If patients use generic versions of any medicines for chronic illnesses, they can still purchase them at a Tricare retail pharmacy but will pay more than they do now — $8 for a 30-day prescription instead of $5. Medications needed for acute care are not affected by the change, and patients starting new medications for chronic conditions will be able to fill the first 30-day prescription at a retail pharmacy to ensure that there is no lag-time between receiving a script and filling it.
Tricare will issue more details on the program as the date approaches to ensure a smooth transition.
Also, beneficiaries who fill prescriptions will see all copayments increase, except at military treatment facilities where medications will continue to be distributed free of charge. At network pharmacies, co-pays will be $8 for a 30-day supply of a generic medication, $20 for a brand-name medication and $47 for a nonformulary medication.
By mail, the co-payments will be $0 for a generic for a 90-day supply, $16 for brand name and $46 for non-formulary medications.
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Hampton VA has longest wait for primary care doctor
The Virginian-Pilot, January 7, 2015 by Dianna Cahn/Mike Hixenbaugh
Local veterans have to wait a month on average to get an appointment with a primary care physician at the VA Medical Center in Hampton, longer than any other veterans facility in the country and significantly more than the national average of one week, according to the most recent data released by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The average wait time at the Hampton VA Medical Center and its regional clinics is 30.53 days. The second-longest wait time is 28.45 days at the VA inFayetteville, N.C. Only four VA facilities in the country have wait times over 20days. The national average, measuring from the preferred time for theappointment to the actual appointment, is 6.95 days.
The numbers come as little surprise. Veterans in the region have longcomplained that they can't get timely appointments with primary doctors atthe Hampton VA, while the facility acknowledges it has struggled tomeet increasing demand - up 7.5 percent between September 2013 and September 2014 -as the veteran population grows.
In addition, the medical center has had difficulty recruiting and retainingprimary care physicians while operating with too little physical space toefficiently provide its services.
Those problems are being addressed, said Hampton VA Director MichaelDunfee, who spoke to reporters Tuesday. The facility is actively hiringprimary care doctors and has two expansion projects under way - one at themain facility in Hampton and a second in Virginia Beach, he said.
"The challenge basically for us is first having the providers in place toprovide the necessary capacity and then having the space - the clinical examspace - for them to provide care," Dunfee said. "We are working hard onboth fronts and starting to turn the corner."
Dunfee said the medical facility lost a physician in December but addedanother to its staff last week, and it will add two more by the end of the month andanother seven by the end of February.
He said the medical center was able to boost its recruitment with a moreenticing employment package that includes increased salaries and payingback student loans. That has generated more interest in positions at the VAand given the facility a better pool of applicants, he said.
The expansion projects ultimately will give the VA 11 additional primary carerooms on its main campus in Hampton and as many as 20 more rooms at a
second clinic in Virginia Beach, he said. Last year, the facility began offeringnight and weekend hours with primary care physicians because of the spacelimitations. Those services will continue even after the expansion is complete,but more daytime appointments will also be available.
Dunfee found some promise in the new data, noting that Hampton faredbetter in its wait times for other kinds of doctors. It still has the fourth-longestwait for mental health care appointments - an average of 14.7 days. ButDunfee said that number has held steady despite the increase in demand.
And the wait time for specialty-care appointments, now at 12.7 days, hasimproved significantly, he said, pulling Hampton out of that top-10 list,though it's still double the national average.
"I really do have a positive feeling about the actions we're taking," he said.
Dunfee said it's a mistake to compare wait times at facilities becauseeach medical center deals with many variables, including patientpopulation and the growth in that population, the types of services thefacilities provide, the size of the actual facilities and its affiliations with localproviders.
Hampton suffered a higher than expected turnover in physicians in the past 18months, losing nine primary care physicians between June 2013 andDecember 2014, compared with just three during the previous 18 months.
With more doctors coming on board soon, Dunfee said, he believes waittimes will improve by spring. He predicts that in six months, waits forprimary care doctors will be nearer to 20 days.
"This is not something that we take lightly in any way," he said. "But it's alsonot something that is an insurmountable problem."
Dianna Cahn, 757-222-5846,
Mike Hixenbaugh, 757-446-2946,
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New Georgetown bakery has a philanthropic mission —
just don’t call it a charity
Washington Post, By AbhaBhattaraiJanuary 42015
The first indication that the cheerful white building in Georgetown is not a run-of-the-mill bakery is its front door: A large sliding glass structure that takes up a good chunk of the building’s exterior.
That door, made to accommodate disabled employees and patrons, is one of a number of considerations that went into building Dog Tag Bakery, a venture years in the making, that opened its sliding doors in November.
The business is a for-profit enterprise, but its mission is very much rooted in philanthropy: In addition to serving up bread and quiche, the bakery works closely with Dog Tag Inc., a nonprofit that offers a six-month entrepreneurship fellowship for disabled veterans through Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies.
Students spend 15 hours a week working at the bakery, where they handle everything from front-of-the-house operations and dough-kneading to updating the company’s Web site and helping run its catering and wholesale operations.
“This is not only a business, but it is also a laboratory for our fellows to put to use the skills they’re being taught at Georgetown,” said Phil Cassidy, chairman of the bakery’s board.
The number of veterans re-entering the workforce has been climbing as the United States winds down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, making programs such as Dog Tag’s more important, Cassidy said. There are 1.25 million veterans in Virginia, Maryland and the District alone, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Roughly 150 veterans applied for the fellowship’s first class, which concluded last month. Ten participants were selected, all of whom were categorized as at least 50 percent disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The people we’ve targeted are enlisted personnel who — during their entire service careers — have been told where to go, what to do, what to wear,” Cassidy said. “We want to prepare them for the workplace, but we also want them to feel empowered.”
It took two years to find a building that offered enough space to hold classes and could be made compliant with guidelines in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Proximity to Georgetown University was also a priority.
Eventually, the bakery’s founders — Father Richard Curry, founder and director of the Academy for Veterans at Georgetown, and Constance Millstein, a local attorney, philanthropist and entrepreneur — settled on 3206 Grace St., next to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. It cost more than $2 million to purchase and renovate the building.
Since its opening in the fall, the bakery’s focus has been on creating a following among Georgetown residents. Sales in December were three times higher than they were in November, according to General Manager Justin Ford. Cassidy says he expects the bakery to be profitable by the end of 2015, without offering exact figures.
“It’s not a charity, and we don’t want it to become a charity,” Cassidy said. “We think it’s important for the students in the program to run a profitable business.”
“If they’re going to learn anything about running a business, they’ve got to understand that the most important thing is figuring out how you’re going to get the doors open and the lights on,” he added.
Much of Cassidy’s work centers around raising funds for the fellowship, which costs about $20,000 per student. Dog Tag Inc., the nonprofit, covers the costs for the six-month course, provides a living stipend and pays for medical care for participants.
“The bakery, while it will contribute, will never be able to sustain the whole cost,” Cassidy said, adding that he expects the business to have profit margins between 3 percent and 5 percent. “That’s just not the business model.”
Maurice Jones, who recently retired after 22 years in the military, is one of the program’s recent graduates. Beginning this month, he will begin a Master’s program in project management at Georgetown, and plans to eventually open his own IT consulting firm.
“The fellowship was really great because I got to meet other veterans who had different ideas about business,” Jones said. “We bounced ideas off of each other.”
Among the nine other recent graduates, one is pursuing an MBA at Howard University, while others are planning to start their own businesses.
The program is currently accepting applications for its next class, which is likely to start in the spring. Eventually, Cassidy hopes to double, then triple, the size of each class.
“We believe we have a replicable model,” Cassidy said. “The objective is to r0ll this out across the nation slowly, one step at a time.”
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First House bill would let companies avoid health coverage for workers by hiring veteransBy ALAN FRAM , Associated Press, January 6, 2015
WASHINGTON — On the new Congress' first day, the House unanimously approved Republican legislation Tuesday making it easier for smaller companies to avoid providing health care coverage to their workers by hiring veterans.
The measure was approved 412-0 and is the first of many expected GOP bills aimed at President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, which was enacted over uniform Republican opposition.
That 2010 law is phasing in a requirement that companies with more than 50 full-time workers provide medical coverage for their workers. The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., would exempt from that threshold veterans who already get health care from the Veterans Affairs Department or the military.
Supporters say the measure would encourage employers to hire veterans. That's a goal backed by members of both parties, even as federal figures show unemployment among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans dropped from 9.9 percent in November 2013 to 5.7 percent last November.
Critics say the measure's effect on companies and veterans is overstated. They say only modest numbers of firms are close to the 50-worker level and would be motivated to hire veterans to avoid providing medical insurance for their employees.
In a written statement, the White House said it backed the measure, saying it supports "commonsense improvements" in the law.
"We want to work with Congress on policies that strengthen and simplify the Affordable Care Act, protecting coverage and taxpayers alike," the White House said.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he considered the bill "one piece of our ongoing efforts to fully repeal and replace" Obama's health care law.
Rep. TulsiGabbard, D-Hawaii, an Army National Guard member who has served in the Middle East, said the measure would help two important constituencies: veterans and small business.
"It's a great message and exactly the right tone" for the new Congress, Gabbard said.
A similar bill passed the House last year by 406-1, but went nowhere in the Democratic-run Senate. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., has introduced the same legislation in the Senate, which is now controlled by Republicans.
The House plans to debate a far more controversial bill later this week.
It would change the health care law's definition of a full-time worker from those who work 30 hours weekly to people working 40 hours.
Republicans say the health law's 30-hour requirement is encouraging companies to cut workers' hours.
Democrats say raising the law's threshold to 40 hours would put far more people at risk. That's because more employees work around 40 hours weekly than 30 hours, meaning that more of them could be targeted for fewer hours by companies looking to save money by reducing health coverage.
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Here come the freshmen: Military veterans among Congress' newest class
By ERICA WERNER, The Associated Press, January 4, 2015
WASHINGTON — Congress' approval rating hovers around 15 percent, but there's one group of people excited about the institution: the newly elected lawmakers who are about to join its ranks.
The House will welcome 58 freshmen this coming week, including 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats, pushing the GOP majority to 246 members, the most since the Great Depression.
In the Senate, 13 new lawmakers, all but one of them Republican, will be sworn in, flipping control of the chamber to the GOP with a 54-vote majority.
The incoming classes will bring new gender and racial diversity to Capitol Hill, with 104 women in the House and Senate and close to 100 black, Hispanic and Asian lawmakers. The newcomers include the youngest woman elected to Congress, 30-year-old Elise Stefanik of New York, and the first black Republican woman, Mia Love of Utah.
As the new members prepared to arrive on Capitol Hill, several said they brought hopes of curbing the often partisan atmosphere in Washington, showing the public that they really can govern and, just maybe, getting Congress' approval rating back up past 20 percent.
"This election was not an endorsement of either party, it was a condemnation of, yes, the president's policies, but also of government dysfunction," said GOP Rep.-elect Carlos Curbelo, who defeated a Democratic incumbent in Florida. "I hope we can be different. ... I hope we focus on getting things done."
A few of the notable new arrivals:
The military veterans
A number of the new arrivals have served in the military, something that has become increasingly rare on Capitol Hill.
Democrats Seth Moulton and Ruben Gallego both served with the Marines in Iraq, while another incoming freshman, Republican Lee Zeldin of New York, served with the Army there.
Republican Rep.-elect Martha McSally of Arizona is a retired Air Force colonel and the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat. She told "Fox News Sunday" that military veterans bring a problem-solving perspective.
"We're very solution-oriented, we're very pragmatic," McSally said Sunday. "You can't be in the war you want to be in, you got to be in the war you're in, and you got to just get the job done."