If we marry and my husband dies, will I be eligible?
December 4th, 2009 | TriCare Help | Posted by Military Times
Q. My fiance is 84, a retired Navy man, and he’s just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He would like me to marry him so I can be covered by Tricare after his death.
My question is, if he dies — say, a month after marriage — would I still be eligible for Tricare benefits?
Your fiance should contact the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, better known as DEERS, for instructions to enroll you in Tricare. That can be done only through the uniformed services. DEERS is the official Defense Department agency that will provide the help he will need to do that. The toll-free number for DEERS is 1-800-538-9552.
You will become legally entitled to Tricare the moment your husband kisses the bride. If he were to die in the next minute, your Tricare eligibility will still be in effect. It is the fact of your legal marriage that creates your Tricare eligibility, immediately. To use Tricare, of course, there will be administrative details to accomplish. Call DEERS for help.
You didn’t mention your age. If you are, or if you become, entitled to Medicare, federal law requires you to be enrolled both in Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B to qualify for Tricare eligibility.
For the rest of your life, you will be responsible for checking your registration in DEERS to keep it up-to-date, and to promptly advise DEERS of any changes in your status, such as an address change.
Similarly, you will be responsible for keeping your military identification card up-to-date. At least 90 days before your card expires you will need to contact DEERS for help with renewing it.
Every time a Tricare claim is processed, the claims processing computer automatically contacts the DEERS computer to ensure that the patient on the Tricare claim was eligible for Tricare on the date she received the medical care. At that time, also, Tricare confirms the beneficiary’s eligibility generally by comparing the information on the claim form with the information in the beneficiary’s DEERS record. Thus, you see the need to keep it up to date. Discrepancies can cause claims to be denied until they are corrected.
If you are, or if you become, entitled to Medicare and are enrolled in Part B, you will be eligible for the Tricare program named Tricare for Life, also called TFL for short. TFL is a Tricare plan created by Congress in 2001. It allows a Tricare beneficiary who has Medicare to use Tricare Standard as second payer to her Medicare A and B coverage. In the vast majority of claims, the combined payments by the two federal benefit programs will pay your medical bills in full.
I suggest you visit the official Tricare web site now. Here you can locate your Regional Tricare Office (make a permanent record of the contact information — that will be your primary source for official Tricare help and information), see an overview of the Tricare plans, and — if you are entitled to Medicare now, or will become entitled soon, and are enrolled in Part B — look at the information about TFL and download a Tricare for Life Handbook.
If you are not near Medicare entitlement age (65), your choices for coverage will be Tricare Standard or Tricare Prime.
Prime is not available in all areas, so if you are interested in that plan, call your Regional Office again to ask if Prime is available for persons in your residential area. Tricare Prime costs the least in out-of-pocket expenses, but it also has certain inconveniences for members who travel frequently.
Under Prime, you must use only certain providers in your local area who are under contract with Tricare to provide care at discounted rates. Prime membership also allows you priority access to your nearby military treatment facility where you can get free medical care including hospitalization.
When you become eligible for Tricare, it is for life, unless, as a widow, you remarry. If you remarry, you will lose all military benefits from this husband. They can never be restored, even if the next marriage ends in death or divorce.
All Tricare beneficiaries without exception are automatically eligible for and are enrolled in the Tricare Pharmacy Program. It is one of the very best prescription drug programs in the nation. It needs no help from any other pharmacy insurance plan. You can get a 90-day supply of a drug for the same price as you pay for a 30-day-or-less supply when purchased locally.
Tags: death, DEERS, handbook, Medicare, military treatment facilities, Part A, Part B, pharmacy, spouse, Tricare For Life, Tricare Prime, Tricare Standard, widow
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