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The Bi-Monthly Newsletter
of the
Hampton Roads Chapter
Military Officers Association
of America
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A MOAA Five
Star Level of Excellence Chapter Since 2004.
A First Runner
Up Web Site For 2012, a Winner Printed Newsletter 2012, and Winner
E Newsletter.
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VOL 37-NO 6
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ONE POWERFUL VOICE
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NOVEMBER 2013
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THE TRIBUTE
In honor of those who have
sacrificed
to keep our country free.
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Courtesy
of the Arlington National Cemetery Website Images
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15
November 2013 Luncheon
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| The luncheon will be held at the Atlantic
Shores Community, Magnolia Room. This is the Annual Toys for Tots
celebration, and ROTC appreciation luncheon. The guest
speaker will be Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Z. Woodworth, Site Commander,
MAG-49 Detachment D HMM-774 Wild Goose Squadron.
Bring an unwrapped gift or check, thank you! |
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| Visit our website at www.hrcmoaa.org,
read the Electronic Newsletter, access Virginia Council of Chapters, MOAA
National, Service Departments, Health and Benefit locations, U. S.
Senators and Representatives and many others. If you do not have
the Members Only “Password” please contact any of our Officers |
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ROWS Annual Christmas
Dinner Dance
Friday, December 6, 2013
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| Chapter members are invited to join
the ROWS for their annual Christmas Dinner Dance at the Princess Anne Country
Club, Virginia Ballroom.
6:00-7:00 p.m.—Cocktails; 7:00-10:00 p.m.—Dinner
and Dancing
Music by The Dudes from The Rhondels.
Black tie or military uniform optional.
Menu:
Toss Salad with dressing on the
table
(1) Ribeye – Medium Rare
OR
(2) Fresh Broiled Atlantic Salmon with
Lemon Dill Beurre Blanc
OR
(3) Coq au Vin – Chicken
with Roasted Red Potatoes & Green
Beans Almondine. Muffins and Hot Rolls/Butter, Coffee/Tea, Cherry
Cobbler a la mode.
Price: $60.00 per person.
Make a list of your guests (and yourself!)
and indicate entrée for each person.
All checks must be made payable to ROWS.
Mail list of guests and entrees with checks
to:
Barbara Smith
1201 Faulkner Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23454
Reservations, checks, and menu choices must
arrive in Barbara’s mail- box
by Friday, November 29, 2013. |
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President’s Message
Fellow Officers and Spouses:
We are rapidly coming to the close of 2013
and we appeal to all our members to renew their membership in our great
Chapter. If you have renewed, thank you, - please help us get the
rest of our members to follow your lead. Again, everything we are
and everything we do is predicated on maintaining our current membership
numbers and actively recruiting new members especially those recently retired,
close to retirement and the few active duty. Give us a lead – their
name, address, phone number and we will pursue. Contact - COL.
Larry King, USMC (Ret) (757-650-1086) or me, COL Jim Edge
USA (Ret) (757-434-1259).
As a member of MOAA (both National &
Chapter), you are the single most important person in our organization.
Without your membership and support we would not be the largest and most
influential Association of Military Officers. MOAA has over 400 Chapters
and more than 380,000 members and we have Chapters in approximately 60%
of the Congressional Districts throughout the country. What does
this mean? We see on a daily basis the erosion or attempts at erosion
of the promises made to every military person who has honorably and faithfully
served our nation. The only way to preserve these promises is through
a strong presence with the elected and appointed officials in Washington.
With our vast numbers (that is you) Congress listens to MOAA when we personally
“Storm the Hill” and when we inundate them with letters, emails and phone-calls.
Of extreme importance (again – because
of our numbers & reputation) is the access our MOAA leadership, especially
our well respected and dedicated MOAA President, Vice Admiral Norb Ryan,
Jr. (Ret), enjoys with Congress and Cabinet Members such as the Secretary
of Defense. MOAA’s honorable history is looking out for and taking
care of the most valuable asset this country has – our men and women (all
ranks & families) of the Armed Forces – Active & Retired.
Don’t ever forget how important you are – thank you. Please come
out and join us at our Luncheon Programs.
The Chapter is looking for volunteers
to fill the following positions; Secretary, Personal Affairs, and Active
Duty Military Liaison, your help in filling these positions is appreciated.
Call me.
Thank you,
Jim Edge |
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| Legislative Update; Joint
Leadership Council |
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| Affordable Care Act
On October 1, major provisions from the
2010 Affordable Care Act went into effect. Many MOAA members using
TRICARE, TRICARE for Life (TFL) and Medicare, or VA health care are concerned
by the launch of the new health insurance initiatives and want to know
how they’re impacted. It’s important to understand that TRICARE,
Medicare, and VA health care are separate from the new health care marketplace
(exchange). If you have TRICARE, TFL and Medicare, or VA health care you
should not sign up for a marketplace plan. You should make the same decisions
about your healthcare coverage that you make every year. We answer
some of your most frequently asked questions:
Q: I use TRICARE (Standard, Prime, Extra,
etc.), TFL and Medicare, or VA health care. Will I need to use the healthcare
exchanges?
A: No. The new health exchanges are intended
to help people who do not have insurance. You already have qualified health
insurance with TRICARE, TFL and Medicare, or VA health care. You should
make the same decisions about your healthcare coverage that you make every
year.
Q: If I have TRICARE or TFL and Medicare,
VA health care do I need to worry about the new requirement to obtain health
insurance and associated penalties?
A: No. Congress recognized that military
and VA health care programs fulfill a special need, and that it would be
inappropriate to wrap all health programs together so military and VA beneficiaries
have the same coverage as all other Americans. At the urging of MOAA and
other organizations, Congress passed the TRICARE Affirmation Act in 2010
that specifically exempted TRICARE and VA beneficiaries from the individual
mandate provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
Q. Can I expect my TRICARE enrollment
fee, premiums, deductibles or co-pays to go up because of this legislation?
A. No, there’s nothing in the legislation
that would change any TRICARE fees.
That said, the Pentagon has attempted
to dramatically increase TRICARE fees for the past few years. We
expect that to continue. MOAA will continue to fight disproportionate
fee increases.
Q. I understand the Affordable Care
Act cut Medicare funding by $500 billion. Will that cut payments to doctors
and threaten TFL?
A. It’s true that health care reform reduces
Medicare spending by about that much, but most of those changes are relatively
less painful ones that probably won’t affect TRICARE or TFL beneficiaries
much. They include $118 billion from eliminating the extra subsidy
to the Medicare Advantage HMO program (which was sold to Congress as a
cost-saver, but actually costs 14% more per person than Standard Medicare),
cutting about $150 billion from non-rural hospitals (which the hospital
associations say they can handle because expanding insurance coverage to
most Americans will mean they won’t have to eat the cost of serving the
uninsured), and cutting back abuses in medical equipment. These are
things most of us would probably push to consider if it were our own money
paying for them (which it actually is).
Q. Are you saying that the funding cut
won’t affect Medicare beneficiaries at all?
A. No. But the implications are probably
longer-term ones than shorter-term ones. The real issue under national
health reform is that the money from these Medicare savings will be used
to fund expansion of health insurance coverage to those who don’t have
it now instead of being used to pay for needed fixes to Medicare.
It’s hard to argue that reducing the number of uninsured would be a bad
thing. But using the relatively “easy” Medicare savings initiatives to
fund that means that when the baby boomers start swamping Medicare and
Social Security in the next few years, Congress will be forced to look
at more painful ways to fund that need. Sequestration didn’t touch
Medicare and Social Security, but it’s only a matter of time until reforms
of these entitlements are considered.
Q: What if I have TFL and Medicare and
someone tells me I need to get a new plan because of the new healthcare
law?
A: This is not true. Dishonest people
may try to take advantage of consumers by telling them they need to buy
a plan when they don’t need one. In fact, it is against the law for someone
to sell you a marketplace plan if they know you have TFL and Medicare.
Don’t let someone sell you a marketplace plan by telling you it’s a Medicare
Supplemental (“Medigap”) plan. Medigap plans are not sold through the marketplaces.
Never give your Medicare number or Medicare card to someone you don’t know,
such as an unsolicited caller or a salesman at your door. If you think
something unsavory is going on, you can learn how to report suspected fraud
at www.StopMedicareFraud.gov.
- See more at: http://www.moaa.org/main_article.aspx?id=12683&LangType=1033#sthash.cG7ROybp.dpuf
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| From the Editor |
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| The MOAA Educational Assistance program,
which our Chapter Scholarship Fund is a part of, has provided us
with a list of local Students who are recipients of financial assistance
from the MOAA scholarship fund for the upcoming school year. Three
students were from Norfolk, 29 from Virginia Beach and 40
from Chesapeake. Six of the students in our local area, have
parents who belong to HRCMOAA. They have received financial assistance
from the MOAA Scholarship Fund for this academic year and we want to offer
our well deserved recognition to Sydney Catoire, Megan Greaves,
Trae
King, Isabel Lesh, Phillip Levins and
Sarah McGinnis.
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| TRICARE for Life beneficiaries
are being notified that as of October 1st, military retirees (over age
65) who receive care at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility for non-service
connected ailments will be required to pay the VA 80% of the TRICARE allowable
charges. By law TRICARE, will only pay up to 20 percent. The remaining
80 percent is equal to the amount that Medicare would have paid if the
beneficiary had used a Medicare certified provider.
This is not a new a new law, it is a regulation
that both agencies (TRICARE & VA) recently realized was not properly
enforced for over a decade.
To avoid getting charged the remaining
80 percent, TRICARE and the VA are urging that you only seek care for service
connected disability at VA health care facilities and seek care for all
other medical services at a certified Medicare provider. It is
important to note: higher priority veterans will not be impacted
by the enforcement of this rule. For example, veterans with VA disability
ratings of 10 to 40 percent will continue to receive cost-free VA care
for any condition. These veterans are only required to pay a co-payment
of $8 on outpatient medications for non-service-connected conditions. Veterans
with service-connected ratings of 50 percent or higher are not required
to make any co-payments for care at VA facilities. Fm Military Update. |
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HRCMOAA ROTC Scholarship Fund
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| HRCMOAA is committed to funding
the MOAA scholarship fund at $25,000 in 5 years. That translates into $5,000
per year.
Please consider contributing before
the end of this year!
Members may submit to the chapter treasurer,
LT
Stephen Hackney, USN-Ret at 1736 Rally Dr. Virginia Bch, VA 23454-1233
or in person at our luncheons. The checks are consolidated
and submitted to MOAA who sends receipts to the donors.
Members who already donate to the national
MOAA Scholarship may continue to do so. You just need to note on the check
that it is for the Hampton Roads Chapter ROTC Scholarship Fund. MOAA
will continue to send receipts to the donors. |
Hampton Roads Chapter ROTC
Scholarship Fund
Goal for 2016: $25,000.00
Collected to date; $10,309.00
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2013
Contributions
PLATINUM $500
and above
Ms. Shirley Clapp, $1000.00 to the scholarship fund in honor of
her late husband,
COL Archie J. Clapp, USMC (RET).
GOLD $250 to $499
CDR John Vermillion, USN-Ret.
SILVER $100 to
$249
COL Jack Hilgers, USMC-Ret.
LtCol Jim Dellaripa, USAF-Ret.
CAPT Jim Jones, USN-Ret.
CAPT Bill Lehr, USCG-Ret.
Bronze Under $100
CAPT Jim Hanson, USN-Ret.
LT Steve Hackney, USN-Ret.
CAPT Holly Hollandsworth, USN-Ret. 50/50 winnings.
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Military ID Card Notification Program
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| This program is designed to help Chapter
members and their dependent’s to renew their ID cards in a timely
fashion. Once you and your dependents are enrolled, you will
be notified of your impending ID card expiration date in sufficient time
for renewal prior to the expiration date.
Note: Over age 75 members, who
are eligible uniform family members and survivors of deceased personnel
are now eligible for Permanent Identification Cards. Apply within
90 days of expiration of current ID card. |
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| To enroll in this voluntary program, fill
in the form at the link below for each dependent and Send by Email or Print
and Mail to: Military ID Card Notification Program, HRCMOAA, P.O. Box 4612,
Virginia Beach, VA 23454-0612. |
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Veterans Day Parade, Virginia Beach
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| The Hampton Roads Council of Veterans
Organizations sponsors an annual Tidewater Veterans Day Parade. This
year it will be held on Monday 11 November. The parade will start
at 9:00 AM on Atlantic Avenue and proceed up 19th Street to a reviewing
stand at the Tidewater Veterans Memorial. The HRCVO has sponsored
this event for over 30 years. Last year there were 80 participants.
Your Chapter will have a car in the parade. Please consider joining
the crowd an viewing the parade and ceremonies at the reviewing stand. |
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| With the immediate crisis over, Congress can now turn
its attention to the following laundry list of issues that must be addressed
and soon. |
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Defense Appropriations/Authorization Bills:
pass a defense budget and an authorization bill for FY2014.
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“Doc Fix”: come up with a debt deal
to avert the 24.4% Medicare/TRICARE physician reimbursement rate cut scheduled
to take effect on January 1, 2014.
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Sequestration: address the disproportional
and harmful sequestration cuts that will reduce the Pentagon’s budget by
$52 billion in FY2014.
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Another Continuing Resolution: agree
to a long term budget or pass another continuing resolution by January
15 to avoid another government shutdown.
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Debt ceiling: raise the debt ceiling
by February 7. A new budget deal would likely include a debt ceiling increase.
It’s clear from the events of the past few
weeks that the full slate facing Congress at the end of the year will be
anything but easy. |
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Who is Express Scripts?
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| Express Scripts makes the use of prescription
drugs safer and more affordable for tens of millions of consumers through
thousands of employers, government, union and health plans. Express Scripts
handles millions of prescriptions each year through Home Delivery and at
retail pharmacies.
Auto Refills are now Worry-free Fills®
Auto Refills is now "Worry-free Fills",
which means TRICARE Pharmacy Home Delivery will automatically refill your
maintenance prescriptions and mail them directly to your home. Worry-free
Fills works best for medications you take to treat ongoing conditions like
high blood pressure. As part of the services of the Worry-free Fills program,
we will contact your doctor when you are out of refills for your medication
and require a prescription renewal. With Worry-free Fills you have peace
of mind knowing you will always have your medication when you need it.
How do I start using TRICARE Pharmacy
Home Delivery?
It's easy. Just follow the instructions
below:
To get started by placing an order, sign
in to your account and use our Fill a New Prescription feature to access
instructions on how you can submit your form. Here you can print out a
blank order form that your doctor can fill in and fax to us with the prescription.
To get started without placing an order,
sign in to your account and use the Account settings section to submit
your information to the Express Scripts Pharmacy. By providing this information
in advance, you will expedite the processing of your first order.
Go to https://www.express-scripts.com/TRICARE/
and register. Click on create your account.
(I use the program and it is working very
well. Saves a lot of miles and gas!! Your EDITOR) |
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18 October Luncheon
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| The luncheon was held at the Aberdeen
Barn and our guest speaker was COL William J. Davis, USMC-Ret.
COL Davis has served more than 18 years as a Director of the MacArthur
Memorial Museum, he is now the Director of the Foundation. He covered
the history of the Museum which is also the burial site for General and
Mrs. MacArthur. He oversaw the construction of eight new permanent
exhibit galleries and the recent construction of the new 16,000 square
foot Memorial Visitors Center which opened in 2012. Above, COL Davis
receives the Jefferson Cup from our chapter president, COL Jim Edge
USA (Ret).
Below right, LCDR Jack Branson
USN (Ret) has the attention of (left to right), Donna Branson, Evelyn
Edge, and Sylvia Smith, before the program. |
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Virginia Wounded Warrior Program
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| The Virginia Veterans Services Foundation
is taking contributions to support the Program.
I am enclosing/pledging my most generous
contribution in the amount of:
__ $1,000 __ $500
__ $250 __ $100 ? __$50 __ Other $_________
Please make checks payable to:
Virginia Veterans Services Foundation
For: VWWP
900 East Main Street, Ground Floor
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Your contribution is tax exempt under Internal
Revenue Service Section 170 (c) and Code of Virginia Section 2.2.2719.
Please provide the following;
Name(s) ______________________________________________________
Address _______________________________________________________
Phone _______________________
Email_______________________________________
HRCMOAA Member
Yes ___ No ___
You may also donate on line by visiting
the Virginia Veterans Services Foundation at;
www.vvsf.org |
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Chapter Schedule
For the most current and up-to-date schedule
of chapter events,
click on Calendar
of Events
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15 November Luncheon
will be held at the Atlantic Shores Community
with a guest speaker from the USMC for the annual Toys for Tots program. |
ROWS Annual Christmas Dinner Dance
December 6, 2013
Chapter members are invited. The
event will be held at the Princess Anne Country Club, Virginia Ballroom
starting at 6:00-7:00 p.m.—Cocktails; 7:00-10:00 p.m.—Dinner and Dancing,
Music by The Dudes from The Rhondels. |
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VCOC Schedule
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| The next meeting for the VCOC is scheduled
for12 January 2014. Storming of the Hill will follow on 13 January. |
| Contact our VCOC representative CAPT Jim
Jones, USN-Ret. at 777-5972 or 427-0395 for transportation details. |
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16 August Luncheon
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| The luncheon was held at the Atlantic
Shores Retirement Community, Magnolia Room. Our guest speaker was
Congressman
Scott Rigell, Virginia’s 2nd District. Eighty-nine guests were
present for presentation. He discussed the Veterans medical care
and the need to speed up the claims processing. He indicated the
#1 threat to America is “Apathy” Do what is right for the country
not the party!! Shown above is President COL Jim Edge, USA-Ret.
presenting the Jefferson Cup to Congressman Scott Rigell. |
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| Congressman Scott Rigell, 2nd Congressional
District, Virginia, stands with the Color Guard from Joint Forces Command
at Little Creek Amphibious Base. The picture was taken just
prior to his presentation at the 16 August Luncheon. |
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20 September Luncheon
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| The luncheon was held at the Princess
Anne Country Club in Virginia Beach. Our guest speaker was CAPT
Jake Johansson, USN, C. O. Naval Support Activity, Norfolk. He
has six facilities and 59 Tenant Commands. NSA provides Fleet
Support, Family Support and Fighter Support. He covered NSA’s responsibilities.
He stressed the importance of knowing your People, know your Base and know
your Business. |
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New Members Welcomed
Our new members LtCol Frank Harris,
USAF-Ret. and his wife Mary Lou were welcomed at the 20 September
Luncheon. They recently moved to the area from Staunton Virginia.
We hope to see them often at future luncheons. |
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IN MEMORIAM
CDR Joseph P. Zaluski, USN-Ret
CAPT Emery P. Spidell, USN-Ret
Elisabeth A. Bowles, AUX
Hope Thornton Scherrer, AUX
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