and, in fact, have developed the proposal and have been working very closely with tricare and samhsa to try and move that forward. the two issues that you really see are peer support and in-home care. it's peer support because you must build the network of veterans, how they felt like they were in the service. you must have your brothers in arms, you must have your fellow service members standing beside you to overcome stigma, to get through this and to feel that camaraderie that you once felt. and you must get in the home. because pulling a veteran out of home, treating them, and then putting them back in their home is treating a very small portion of the problem. we recognize that consumers in our system often would really be able to provide support to their peers. yet, there really wasn't a mechanism to do that. we decided to start a recovery support institute to train and certify persons who had been through treatment in our system, that then could come out as certified recovery support specialists and work at our providers and provide services. hope stands for helping ourselves

, when you were head of tricare.ow you actually do also oversee and work with a tricare program at health net. what does it mean to military families in terms of your overseeing it and also with your perspective and what help we're giving to military families now? >> yeah. my position with health net, being able to continue to serve and support military families and retirees, and tricare is exceedingly important to military families and retirees. having a reliable health care program makes it so much easier for our service members who go into harm's way. >> and know they're gonna have this when they come out particularly. >> and know that they have it, but just as importantly, they know their family members, who are at home, are being cared for. >> one less worry that troubles them. >> one less worry, and just being able to continue to serve, being on the government side, supporting the tricare program, and now being able to continue to serve tricare. >> you on both sides personally. >> both sides. and just personall

and so that means that tricare has to go into the community and have relationships with those community providers. that's all continuing to move, ivette, and shift dramatically, as each state then has to make its own health exchange and health insurance plans. so, yes, you're correct, it is dramatic. well when we come back, i want to continue on the thought of the cost to society of not meeting the needs of all of these individuals as well as some of the programs that are available to...have families continue to access treatment. we'll be right back. for more information on national recovery month , to find out how to get involved, or to locate an event near you, visit the recovery month web site at recoverymonth.gov. i had no idea it was going to be so hard. i didn't know what to expect. you hear the stories, but i never took any of it seriously until i found myself here. and then i realized i was going to have to work hard for my recovery. if you or someone you know has a drug or alcohol problem, you are not alone. call 1-800-662-help. recovery was the hardest job i ever had... and th

also a few other cameras in the area. 66 degrees tricare now. it looks similar with a few high clouds and ice temperatures. 72 for the high. a cooler than average day statistically. beautiful with sunshine and drier air. 66 in frederick -- in washington-dulles. this high pressure moves in and those clouds will be gone. a clear night with light windy and chilly temperatures. frost as possible in western maryland. even in local areas where talking suburbs in the mid-40's. the chill is in the air. that is the back edge of yesterday's storm. high-pressure for the next couple days. nighttime temperatures on the cold side. temperatures warming up because the high pressure will move offshore. we will get more of a southerly wind. near 80 on friday and into the weekend and warm before the next cold front comes in. clear and cool and 62 in the city. 72 at midday. eventually to near 80 on friday. saturday, partly cloudy and warm. isolated evening showers and cooler weather sunday and monday. check out the newest member of the weather team at 4:30 a.m. her

so i think we would be faced, to some extent, with not being able to pay all our tricare bills at theend of fiscal '13. we'd try to avoid it, but i think it would happen. i'm not quite sure what our providers would do in that case. it'd be just late, and then we'd try to fix it in '14. but it's not a good situation, and not one that i don't think any of us, i certainly don't want to go through. >> thank you. mr. brooks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. um, i'd like to, first, thank our men in uniform for your service. it's quite impressive to see three four-stars and an admiral here and the dedication that those emblems represent on behalf of our country. and also, mr. hale, your presence here. and i've heard a good bit about why we are here, why we are today, and i wanted to add my thoughts to it, and people can digest them for what they are worth. but we are here today because we have had a united states government that for years now has been reckless with the american treasury. we have had three consecutive trillion dollar deficits, we're now in our fourth year of a trillion dollar defi

i know the military side of it the when fits, especially finish benefits, especially tricar -- tricare and pay is becoming an issue, but what about do you see foresee cuts to civilians working at the pentagon? what do you say about that? >> yeah, you know, that's a very good question. the growth we've seen in personnel costs has not been nearly as large for dod civilians. to put it in context, dod employs about 791,000 dod civilians, that's full-time equivalents, and those costs total about 70 billion in the annual defense budget. >> is that all over the world? >> all over the world, yes. obviously, primarily in the united states, but in other parts of the world as well. they're not all citizens, but the majority are. so that is going to be a target in the future, um, for budget cutters simply because they don't have quite the lobby influence that military personnel do, and you talk about cutting military end strength, you get the services riled up, they can go talk to members of congress on the hill. dod civilians don't quite have the same amount of influence as that. also, it's not q

on the military side, the benefits like tricare and pay have become an issue. what about the civilian side? do you foresee pay cuts at the pentagon? >> that is a good question. the growth of military personnel costs has not been nearly as high as four d.o.d. civilians. d.o.d. employs people with a cost of $17 billion all over the world. primarily in the united states, but in other parts of the world as well. that is going to be a target in the future for budget cutters simply because they do not have the lobby influence that military personnel do when you talk about cutting military strength. you can talk to members of congress on the hill. the civilians do not have the same amount of experience. it is not quite as clear to people what dod civilians are doing. i knew -- i know from having worked with them that they do a lot of great work. it ranges from everything to mowing the grass to overseeing billion dollar acquisition programs. could you trim that number? of course. if you cut too far, you risk getting -- not getting the job done. sequestration is an inte

right now, tricare, the insurance, doesn't cover long-term use of methadone, as a maintenance medicationommended that they start doing that. >> all right. elizabeth cohen, thank you. >> thanks. >>> for more about dealing with substance abuse issues, go to cnn.com/empoweredpatient. >>> politics serious business, but "saturday night live" is not. they got a new guy playing the president and "snl" puts him to the test. >> and i can prove it. the power of a v8 with the highway fuel economy of a v6. incredible! right? an amazing test drive. i agree. [ male announcer ] it's chevy truck month. now during chevy truck month, get 0% apr financing for 60 months or trade up to get the 2012 chevy silverado all-star edition with a total value of $8,000. hurry in before they're all gone! sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, i'm walking down the street, sfx: sounds of marching band d crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx: sounds of marching bandnd and crowd cheering and i found myself in the middle of this paradeeet, sfx: sounds of march

the proposal was to see their tricare prime rates increase. they pay for coverage, it's an earned benefit, but 420 # # has not changed since 1995. you can write stories about the impact on military health care retiree health care. there are things that you can find in this, in the rhetoric, you hear people who do it intentionally, sometimes folks mislead intentionally or don't understand. lawmakers who came into the last congress who didn't fully grasp some of the things they are speaking about. i mean, i see it each over every day. there's lawmakers we know who are knowledgeable, and others are learning. they show up and are learning. some small business owners, and a lot didn't do this stuff before. it takes a couple cycles to understand what's going on in washington, even for a politician with people who are there to advise them. they just don't know. you can do a lot of stories that ease the public concern in some ways, but on the other hand, you know, civilian military personnel, those working for the military department, they are not exe

known as prior approval or precertification is currently used by other health care broken such as tricare, some state medicaid programs, and private insurance plans for many services including pmd's. with prior authorization cms review the medical records before this is a part delivers the pmd. this allows suppliers to know before a night of his liver to a beneficiary whether medicare will pay for it. this does not create any new documentation requirements but simply requires a medical information be provided before submitting the bill for payment. the demonstration can also help us develop improved method for the investigation and prosecution of fraud that could ultimately protect the medicare trust funds from fraudulent activities. this prior authorization download will also venture that a beneficiaries medical condition warrants the penalty under existing coverage guidelines. cms did seek input from any provider and supply groups on this demonstration. when we originally announced on november 152011. we received significant feedback from the industry. in response to that feedback we di

majority never in a combat area or combat theater, and they have their own health care plans called tricare. and the premium is $470 a year. and no co-pay. takes care of all dependents, costs you and me $53 billion a year. we have 61 department of defense schools in america, a bus ride from a public school, every one has a superintendent and the teachers. what's that about? no need for them. got bases in europe, 81 of them. i'm going to quit so you can ask me questions, and i hope i'll be able to hear them because something is going on here, and i don't want to go over my ten minutes. >> thank you very much, alan. [applause] i think you had to take on a few special interests as you went through your procedure. [laughter] erskine bowles -- >> change away my life membership. >> erskine has been our great partner with alan. have we got erskine coming in? i hope so. i hope you can hear me. erskine, did you hear alan? alan went through a very analytical and detailed presentation. >> yeah, i heard parts of it. [laughter] >> erskine bowles, we hear you. >> thank you. i deeply appreciate what you'r

i know tricare and pay is an issue but do foresee cuts to civilians working at the pentagon? >> that is a good question. the personnel cost has not been as large but dot employs 791,000 civilians full-time equivalent. that is about 70 billion of the annual defense budget. all over the world. primarily united states that will be a target in the future for budget cutters because they don't have the lobby influence that personnel to. you get the services riled of it could talk to congress on the hill. the duties of billions don't have quite the influence. plus it is not clear what they are doing. they do lot of great work from mulling the grass to oversee billion dollar acquisition programs. quote could be trimmed the number? of course. but too far you risk not getting the job done or not sufficient oversight or use military personnel to do the same job. sequestration with the obama administration said the letter to congress they say they will use their authority to exempt military. nobody uniform will not lose their job benefits will not be cut with the exception of health care

known as prior approval or precertification is currently used by other health care programs such as tricare, some state medicaid programs, and private insurance plans. for many services including pm. dids. with prior authorization, cms will review the medical records before the supplier delivers the pmd. this allows the supplier to know before an item is delivered to the beneficiary whether medicare will pay for the pmd. the dell station does not create any new documentation requirements but simply requires the medical information be provided before submitting the bill for payment. the demonstration can also help us develop improved methods and for the investigation and prosecution of fraud that could ultimately protect the medicare trust funds from fraudulent activities. this prior authorization demo will also epinsure that a beneficiary's medical condition warrants the pmd under existing coverage guidelines. cms did seek input from many provider and supplier groups on this demonstration. when we originally announced it on november 15th, 2011, we received significant feedback from the indu

the majority are never in a combat theater and have their own health care plans called tricare and the premium is $47 0 a year and no copay takes care of all dependents. cost you and me 53 billion a year. 61 department of defense schools in america. a bus ride from a public school. every one has a supertend and the teachers. terrorist no need for any of those. bases in europe 81 of them. they were a00 when i was there. i'm going quit. you're going ask me questions. i hope i'll be able to hear them. something is going on here. i don't want to go over my ten minutes. >> thank you very much, allen. [applause] through the procedure -- [laughter] erskine bowles -- [inaudible] erskine bowles has been a great partner with allen. do we have erskine bowles coming in? i hope so. i hope you can hear me. erskine bowles, if you hear allen? allen went through a very analytical and detailed presentation. >> caller: yes. >> erskine bowles, we hear you. [laughter] >> caller: thank you, i deeply appreciate what you're doing, senator nunn. i also want to thank john for being there and senator pete domeni