Federal Daily - February 9, 2010
OPM Releases List of ‘High-Transparency’ FEHBP Providers
The Office of Personnel Management has released a list of 45 Federal Employees Health Benefits Program providers that have met OPM’s standards for health information technology and price/cost transparency. OPM said FEHBP participants can use the list to help them choose health care providers.
Listed providers met OPM’s HIT standards, which allow patients, health care providers and health plans to share information securely, driving down costs by avoiding duplicate procedures and manual transactions. More importantly, OPM said, HIT reduces medical errors; for instance, from misread handwritten prescriptions.
The health plans listed have also made a commitment to offer access to health care quality and price/cost information so participants can make more informed choices on which providers to use, OPM said. The online information available includes cost estimators and quality indicators for physician and hospital services and prescription drugs used to treat common or chronic illnesses and conditions, said OPM.
Examples of the surgical procedures for which participants can obtain cost and quality information include: arthroscopy knee/shoulder, breast biopsy, cataract repair, cesarean delivery, colonoscopy, corneal surgery, gall bladder removal, heart catheterization, hysterectomy, inguinal hernia repair, knee replacement and tonsillectomy.
OPM said that as other plans bring these tools online, they will be added to the list.
To see more, go to: www.opm.gov/insure/health/reference/hittransparency.asp.
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Republicans Pan Obama Budget for CBP, Coast Guard
House Republicans criticized President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposal, which they said shortchanged the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, and should instead pare back some slots at the Transportation Security Administration.
Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., of the House the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was especially critical of Obama’s $1.4 billion FY 2011 budget request for the Coast Guard. Although the budget sets aside $538 million for production of the Coast Guard’s fifth National Security Cutter, Mica said it goes too far in suggesting other reductions in the Coast Guard’s ocean-going fleet. He also took aim at proposed cuts in positions at both the Coast Guard and CBP.
For example, while the budget sets aside $94 million for 300 new CBP officers, overall the Border Patrol—which has doubled over a decade to about 20,000 sworn agents—would shrink by about 180 agents.
Mica was also critical of the budget for the Transportation Security Administration, which he said would add 4,500 TSA employees in mostly administrative positions.
“This out-of-control agency now has more than 3,000 administrative staff in Washington with average annual salaries of over $100,000, and another 8,700 administrative and management staff across the country,” Mica said in a Feb. 5 statement. “Instead of shortchanging border and port security, we could save money by cutting excessive administrative positions at TSA by 25 percent.”
To see more, go to: http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/news/
PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=776 (Mica) or www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1265049379725.shtm (DHS budget fact sheet).
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Budget Marks Funds for DoD School Renovation
President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget request would provide $439 million for DoD Education Activity to replace or renovate 10 of its schools—part of Obama’s plan to replace or refurbish more than 100 schools by 2015.
If the budget request is approved, DoDEA’s plan calls for new schools overseas in Belgium, Puerto Rico, Germany and the United Kingdom—as well as facilities in North Carolina, Georgia, New York and Virginia. Construction would take two years, with completion in 2013, said Kevin Kelly, DoDEA associate director for financial and business operations.
Other schools are slated to be renovated, with makeovers to gymnasiums or entire wings. In Georgia, for instance, the plan calls for a new gym for an elementary school at Fort Benning and a new wing for a middle school at West Point, N.Y.
The new schools are badly needed, Kelly said. Some DoDEA’s nearly 200 schools date back to the 1940s, and initially were built as barracks or hospitals. “Some of these schools are getting in bad shape,” Kelly said. “It's time to get them up to date.”
Additional funds would go to school upkeep and new programs, Kelly said. Operation Virtual School, for example, scheduled to launch in the fall, would give geographically dispersed students or students at smaller schools online access to a wide range of classes.
To see more, go to: www.dodea.edu/pressroom/releasesDisplay.cfm?prId=20100205.
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