From militarytimes.com
Millions of active-duty families, retirees and their families should be paying attention to a new enrollment open season that starts Nov. 12 for Tricare health plans as well as new dental and vision benefits.
Some family advocates are concerned that the new annual enrollment seasonrequirement for switching between Tricare Prime and Tricare Select may force some military families to be locked into a plan that they later find doesn’t suit their health care needs.
The health care open enrollment doesn’t affect those using Tricare for Life.
For others, the open enrollment season runs from Nov. 12 through Dec. 10. The choices take effect Jan. 1. For more information, or to switch plans, go to https://tricare.mil/bwe.
If families are satisfied with their Tricare health plan, they don’t have to do anything. But they can’t switch plans at any time during 2019, unless there’s a “qualifying life event,” such as making a move, marriage, the birth of a child, divorce, to name a few. Pregnancy, for example, is not a qualifying life event, according to Tricare officials.
This new practice of limiting enrollment periods “syncs us with the way industry has done this. We’re adopting the practice that most folks experience in the commercial sector,” said Patrick Grady, chief of the Tricare Health Plan.
Navy Vice Adm. Raquel Bono, director of the Defense Health Agency, said that by adhering to the single open season and the qualifying life events, health officials “can also begin to anticipate the needs of our patients more proactively.”
Health officials will have fairly stable information about how many patients are seeking care at each military medical facility and their needs. Bono said officials are also working to make the experience for beneficiaries more consistent across the military health system.
Before military health care reforms went into effect in 2018, beneficiaries could switch from Tricare Prime to Tricare Standard (now Tricare Select) at any time during the year, but they couldn’t switch back to Prime for 12 months. During the 2018 transition period, beneficiaries were given the option of switching back and forth between plans as they wanted, so that they could determine what best fits their needs.
This requirement to lock in a choice for a year could especially affect those who are enrolled in a military medical facility through Tricare Prime, said Karen Ruedisueli, government relations deputy director for the National Military Family Association.
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