operating in Portland, Oregon since September 1, 1981. Similar contracts are now being negotiated with HMOs in Houston and Minneapolis. Although our final results will not be available until 1986, we are confident that the prepaid health plan concept is a viable way to offer another option of quality care at lower costs to beneficiaries and the Government.

New advances in program management are also likely to increase CHAMPUS productivity and further enhance responsiveness to beneficaries. We are preparing to automate the CHAMPUS offices in Colorado to eliminate excess paperwork and to allow us on-line access to claims payment files we use in daily operations. By the end of the year, we expect to have a fully automated Finance and Accounting System. We have also been cooperating with the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS), knowing that an enrollment system will not only reduce fraud and abuse in our system, but will also streamline our claims processing and allow better planning.

Management efficiencies have also been a fundamental reason for the comprehensive revision of the contract requirements for our fiscal intermediaries. Reducing turnaround time for claims payments remains a very high priority. The fiscal intermediaries are now required to conduct telephone development of incomplete claims as well as several beneficiary and provider relations activities. The success is already evident. In 1979 about 46 percent of our 3.4 million claims were processed within 21 days. From February to April of this year, we are showing nearly 75 percent of claims processed within 21 days. By late 1983, when the incentive aspects of the new contracts have been fully implemented, we anticipate even more visible improvement in processing time.

You can see that CHAMPUS is progressing at a good pace. We are aggressively pursuing innovative approaches to strengthen CHAMPUS as a military service benefit to be proud of. And we are doing this in a fiscally responsible way.

This concludes my statement. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

UNIFORMED SERVICES UNIVERSITY OF THE HEALTH SCIENCES

PREPARED STATEMENT

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to present the budget requests for the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences for Fiscal Year 1983.

I am pleased to inform the Committee that during the current year, another significant milestone in the School's mission of providing highly qualified medical officers for the military and Public Health Service will have been achieved. This May, the University will graduate its third class with the awarding of Doctor of Medicine degrees to 103 medical students. This compares with 66 and 29 in the second and first graduating classes, respectively. The size of this year's graduating class is significant because it satisfies the legislative requirement that the University graduate not less than 100 students annually.

The ability to rapidly establish a medical education program of recognized quality is due in large measure to strong, constant Congressional support. Speaking for myself, as well as for Mr. David Packard, who serves as Chairman of the University's Board of Regents, I wish to express special gratitude to this Committee for its continuing interest and confidence in this program and for the assistance which has been provided.

The University budget requests are commensurate with the growth in student enrollment. The request for Operation and Maintenance funds in FY 1983 is for $27,833,000. This increase of $1.9 million over the FY 1982 budget will be used primarily for inflationary increases and for personnel compensation and benefits to the additional faculty and staff employed to support the larger student load.

Approval of $1,285,000 in procurement funds is requested for the purpose of purchasing additional student laboratory and other teaching equipment, necessitated by increased class sizes, and by the need for improvement in departmental laboratory equipment and replacement of obsolete items.

The $1,800,000 requested in FY 1983 for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) will permit the continuation of present programs and the establishment of a small number of new programs for improvement in military health care, infectious diseases and their control, combat casualty care, hazard protection, and health care research. All of the University's programs are reviewed regularly by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and coordinated with the Military Departments. Scientific merit is evaluated in relation to other research programs in and out of the Department of Defense. Reviews also eliminate the possibility of undesirable duplication.

The continuing academic accreditation of the University requires the maintenance of a strong research program. This program permits faculty members to remain current with the advances in scientific knowledge and to engage in productive research in their area of expertise. The program supports medical education by the development of a spirit of inquiry in the students, and fosters their effective harnessing of this spirit through the utilization of the scientific method.

To provide a viable research program, there must be a reliable source of funding. Civilian medical schools rely upon support from state and local governments and from corporate contributions for core research money. Because the Uniformed Services University does not have access to such state and local funds and does not wish to solicit from corporate sources due to the potential for conflict of interest, sole reliance is placed on Congressional funding to provide the "seed" money to initiate programs, and to maintain a minimum level of support.

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The University's RDT&E program represents 5.8 percent of the 1983 budget, considerably lower than that of other high quality medical schools, all of which have major research commitments. However, this level of effort is consistent with our major goal, the development of a quality educational program in which the research effort is complementary to the educational mission. maintain a quality faculty, especially one which remains concerned with the problems of military medicine, these RDT&E funds are essential. The programs supported by these funds are of military relevance and link the students and faculty directly with problems in military medicine.

New to the University budget is the Special Foreign Currency Program request for. $784,000. These monies are to fund epidemiologic studies of infectious diseases in Pakistan and are to be paid from U. S. government holdings of Pakistani rupees designated as excess by the Office of Management and Budget. This undertaking would result in the identification and geographical mapping of Such infectious diseases of major public health and military importance. information is essential for military contingency planning and for development of disease prevention programs and would be immediately and directly applicable in public health and preventive medicine programs among the civilian and military populations of Pakistan. This project augments the DoD infectious disease research and teaching programs in an area of vital interest to the United States and can be accomplished without the use of limited RDT&E funds and without exacerbating the balance of payment situation.

Those of us associated with the Uniformed Services University are proud of past accomplishments and excited about the future. The graduation of the third class is most satisfying and significant because, quantitatively, it marks a year's increased growth in the contribution which the University is making in meeting the health care needs of our Nation's uniformed services; and qualitatively, these men and women will have been uniquely trained as military physi

cians.

I would be pleased to respond to any questions or comments from the Committee.

Thank you.

U. S. COURT OF MILITARY APPEALS

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. ROBINSON 0. EVERETT
CHIEF JUDGE

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

I appreciate the opportunity to present to you the Appropriation Request of the United States Court of Military Appeals for Fiscal Year 1983. This is my second opportunity to present such a request since I assumed office on April 16, 1980. For Fiscal Year 1983 the Court is requesting $3,210,000, a funding level designed to maintain our current programs. This request is $603,000 greater than the FY1982 Appropriation of $2,607,000. Included in this net increase is $142,000 attributable entirely to inflation costs. The remaining $461,000 represents known increases that are essential to the operation of the Court. For instance, rental payments to GSA for leasing the Court facilities will increase by o ver $100,000 while maintenance costs for the new automated equipment used by the Court will increase by almost $250,000. The automated systems are absolutely essential to our maintaining a current docket and in fact have produce ds avings, which I will address later in my presentation.

The Court still has not reached. it's projected staffing le vel of 49 and, consistent with the Administration's continuing efforts to mi ni mi z e government expenditures, we will endeavor not to increase our staff to that level until it be comes absolutely essential because of substantial increase in our caseload.