Author: By tom philpott Military Update
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Military Update: House eyes giving widows more relief from survivor benefit offset
In a hopeful sign for 60,000 military widows and widowers who lost spouses to service-connected illnesses or injuries, a key House subcommittee is taking a fresh look at how Congress might provide heartier survivor benefit packages. Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., chairman of the House armed services subcommittee on military personnel, isn’t promising specific relief from…
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Military Update: Stateside housing allowances to rise 3.4 percent
Housing stipends paid to a million service members living off base in the United States will rise an average of 3.4 percent Jan. 1, which for a second straight year will not be enough to match rising rents and utility costs nationwide. Defense pay officials are executing a five-year plan to dampen stateside housing allowances…
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Military Update: VA expands ‘Choice,’ seeks money to consolidate outside care
An additional 160,000 veterans became eligible Dec. 1 to receive VA-paid medical care from civilian health care providers, the result of changes to the Choice Act of 2014 voted several months ago as Congress seeks to ease the flood of complaints still swirling around that poorly designed law. Meanwhile, VA officials have unveiled a costly,…
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Military Update: Congress, beneficiary groups prepare for health reforms
In January, the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission proposed replacing the triple-option Tricare benefit with a menu of commercial insurance options, similar to those offered to federal civilians, but with a break on premiums except for working-age retirees. As the military community studied those details, the Obama administration released its latest defense budget, which…
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Military Update: Carter’s ‘Force of the Future’ tallies only modest changes
Defense Secretary Ash Carter unveiled the “first tranche” of his Force of the Future initiatives Wednesday. They included none of the costly or controversial ideas that his personnel chief had brainstormed with experts. No end to the up-or-out promotion system. No dramatic “on-ramps” to military service at midgrade. No structural changes to the pay chart.…
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Military Update: DOD resists push to roll back compound drug rules
Thirty-one House members, most of whom, public records show, got campaign dollars from compound drug lobbyists, are pressing the Department of Defense to soften rules set in May that block Tricare coverage of compound medicines when medical efficacy is unproven or prices extreme. Defense officials say they don’t intend to relax the rules created to…
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Military Update: New commissary reform plan to protect shopper savings
The Department of Defense is modifying its approach to reform the commissary benefit with new guarantees to preserve overall shopper savings and avoid pay cuts for current employees, according to a source who has seen fiscal 2017 budget planning documents. The guarantees are part of revised commissary overhaul proposal that officials believe Congress, shopper advocates…
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Military Update: Combat medicine advances when experts collaborate
Perhaps the most significant life-saving advancement in combat medicine in recent years was refinement of tourniquets and training to keep wounded warriors with shattered or missing limbs from bleeding out. Another notable gain was faster medical evacuations of wounded to reach increasingly higher levels of care thanks to enhanced communication and transport capabilities, said Navy…
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Military Update: Digital innovation team to help shape ‘Force of the Future’
Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s “Force of the Future” initiative is expected to include a unique Defense Digital Services office that, within a year, would hire up to 100 top designers, developers and engineers from government and Silicon Valley to launch a new era of digital innovation across the Department of Defense, internal documents explain. Defense…
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Military Update: The arguments behind new tech-track career paths
Every year, hundreds of technically or tactically skilled officers and noncommissioned officers, trained at great expense, leave the military for the private sector, not because their skills aren’t needed but because the military system favors leadership qualities over technical expertise. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in shaping his “Force of the Future” initiative, is weighing creation…