Q. I am on active duty in the Tricare West region. I'm in Tricare Prime, as are my husband and son, who live with me. But my 19-year-old daughter lives in the Tricare South region, in what qualifies as a Tricare Prime Remote area. She's single, not in school and obviously not old enough for Tricare Young Adult. Is she eligible for enrollment as my dependent?
A. Yes. Tricare offers a "split enrollment" option under which entire families can enroll in Prime even if one eligible family member lives in another Tricare region. This allows families with college students, children living with former spouses or families otherwise separated to enroll together in separate regions and pay one enrollment fee, if applicable. Since you're an active-duty member, you do not pay Prime enrollment fees.
Simply notify the Tricare West and South regional contractors that you want to use split enrollment for one of your Tricare-eligible family members. Toll-free customer service numbers for all Tricare regions can be found here: www.tricare.mil/ContactUs/CallUs.aspx
You likely already know this, but your daughter's eligibility for "ordinary" Tricare expires on her 21st birthday, unless she is a full-time college student at that time, in which case ordinary Tricare eligibility extends to age 23. After that, Tricare Young Adult would be her only option, up to age 26, at which point she would exhaust all Tricare options for dependent children.
Q. My military boyfriend and I aren't married, but we have a son together. Will we have to get a DNA test on our son before he can use Tricare?
A. Assuming you have a birth certificate for your son listing your boyfriend as the father, that should be all he needs to register the boy under his sponsorship in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System, the Defense Department's eligibility portal for Tricare and other military benefits.
Your boyfriend should visit the ID Card/DEERS office on his nearest military installation for more information on getting that process started.
Q. We have a daughter on active duty in the Air Force who is assigned in Germany and living off base. Our other daughter, a civilian, is moving to Germany to live with her sister. What will we need to do to set up our civilian daughter with medical coverage?
A. Assuming neither you nor your husband is eligible for Tricare, medical coverage for your civilian daughter through Tricare would be very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. Siblings generally are not eligible for Tricare. The only way that might happen is if the potential military sponsor — your active-duty daughter — were to become the legal guardian of your civilian daughter. And even then, your active-duty daughter likely would have to be her civilian sister's sole means of support.
An important detail that you don't mention is your civilian daughter's age, which also plays a large role in Tricare eligibility.
In any event, Tricare does not make eligibility determinations; only the military services may do that. The mechanism they use is the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, the Defense Department's eligibility portal for Tricare. There is an ID Card/DEERS office on every military installation; your active-duty daughter should visit her local office for more information. You can get more information yourself from the main DEERS support office in California, which can be reached toll free at 800-538-9552.
Corrections & clarifications
■ A response to a question in the Nov. 4 Tricare Help column regarding eligibility for/enrollment in Tricare Young Adult incorrectly characterized the Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System process. Dependents may have their eligibility for Tricare terminated within DEERS, but they remain enrolled in the database.
■ The Nov. 10 Tricare Help column incorrectly described Tricare eligibility rules for retired reserve component members who become eligible to receive military retired pay earlier than the standard age 60 if they served on active duty in support of designated contingency operations. Their Tricare eligibility threshold remains age 60.■
Email tricarehelp@militarytimes.com. Include the word "Tricare" in the subject line and do not attach files. Get Tricare advice any time at http://blogs.militarytimes.com/tricarehelp/.
