That risk adjusting and validated a piece of it. I would present several pieces that go into that calculation and im sure that is one, but im not sure its the main driver. I would be interested in seeing that level of detail. Sure. The higher the risk or the more medicare reimburses you, right . They were doing with the upcoding. Yeah, two components. So the higher risk score and again not an area of officexper but its the relative risk across the program. So medicare for us is not dependent on your utilization. Its Community Rated and then risk adjusted. On the commercial side its entirely utilization based. So if youre a higher utilizer, youre rate is higher. If youre lower risk, your rate is lower. On the medicare side, its a Community Rate approach and then adjusted for risk. So its an adjusted community rating. So the higher our total program is in risk, the more reimbursement we would receive, also dependent on geography and other factors. The risk adjustment that is changing whe
And there are so many other things that go into what quality of life really means, how often do you move and your spouse get a job, that sort of thing. In terms of quality of service, were hearing more and more from our people that theyre sort of surprised by all this. What really matters to them more than keeping this high rate of growth is they want to fight in a modern and ready force. They want to go to work every day, and they want to have parts in the bin where they can repair the thing that they are entrusted with, they want to be able to drive it or fly it or sail it and feel confident that they are on a winning team. That matters. Its an intangible, but it makes a tremendous difference for our people, and we have to look after that as well as the quality of life piece. Secretary fox . Senator, i would just add that i think admiral winnefeld laid it out beautifully. I these intangibles, i think, are important as we look at any changes to retirement, for example, Going Forward.
For our first panel, and we will now call of our second panel. Vikki so much, both of you, for your testimony. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] we now welcome our second panel for witnesses, outside with his socalled, retired army general john kelly junior, the chairman of the board of the military Officers Association of america. Retired army general gordon sullivan, president and chief executive officer of the association of the United States army. Retired air force Master Sergeant richard delaney, National President , retired enlisted association. Dr. David chu, president and chief executive officer of institute for defense analysis. Dr. Chu served as undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness under president bush in 20012009. Now, we also want to note in our audience that we have with us a number of veterans, particularly im informed we would welcome veterans from all our veterans, that would of these include a special group, veterans of rewards and ir
Is the need not only to keep our promises to the retired community, should be considered, invulnerable in my view, but also everyones commitment to people in active service that they have the best training, best equipment, that the families have the best opportunities while they serve. And thats one of the fundamental tensions were trying to deal with. Is that accurate, admiral . Yes, sir, it is. I would add if i could, the only real interest that i have in deliberately doing this is silly to make sure that if its repealed, its repealed in the way that doesnt take it off the table in some form of accounting or gaza living, whatever it is. That its not taken off the table permanently for the commission to the commission to be able to look at all the variables. If its repealed in a manner that doesnt mess with that, if you will, timing is completely up to the congress, obviously. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator fischer. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you both for being here today. Y
Within ten years, but i dont think we can count on that. So lets plan for the worst, right . Yep. Thank you. Thank you, senator graham. Senator blumenthal. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you both for being here today. Thank you both for your extraordinary service. To our nation. I would agree with my good friend, senator graham, in his assessment that we are on a path to repeal the very unfortunate and unwise cola cuts in retiree pensions that were a flaw in the bum agreement. I would disagree with him only on his reference to glide path which implies an ease and unimpeded track that is rarely pound in found in the congre. And i think it will take some doing to have of that path achieved, but i think the debate and discussion here this morning, and your testimonys been very helpful to reaching that path which i think we have an obligation to do. I voted for the budget agreement like so many of my colleagues. I did so with the understanding that that flaw would be corrected. And tha