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Current and former service members and their families use the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs health care systems to handle their care needs. In this section, you’ll find information on the various Tricare programs, including the Tricare for Life system, as well as information on ongoing health care concerns such as Agent Orange and Gulf War illness, along with general information on navigating the health care system bureaucracy.
  • U.S. Military (Ret.): Troops are special breed and deserve their benefits
    My friend Joe Barnes, national executive director of the Fleet Reserve Association, took great exception — justified, in my mind — to a recent Washington Post opinion column that spoke of...
    Posted Thursday Mar 7, 2013 14:01:43 EST
  • U.S. military (ret.): Get dental program info via paperless statements
    Many retirees know how to electronically access their retirement pay accounts through the Defense Finance and Accounting Center.
    Posted Sunday Nov 18, 2012 14:36:34 EST
  • U.S. Military (Ret.): State courts have leeway in deciding how much ex-spouse gets
    Q. I'm a military retiree who receives military retirement pay and veterans' disability compensation. I'm going through a divorce and would like to know if my spouse is entitled to alimony or...
    Posted Sunday Nov 18, 2012 14:20:43 EST
  • U.S. military (ret.): Most important benefits: annuity, Tricare, commissaries
    A fellow retiree recently asked me what I considered the most important retiree benefits.
    Posted Friday Aug 24, 2012 14:40:51 EDT
  • VA assigns officer to verify claims involving secret missions
    For veterans claiming they can't prove a service connection for their disability because it resulted from a secret operation, the Veterans Affairs Department has assigned a liaison officer to the...
    Posted Tuesday Nov 16, 2010 12:49:16 EST
  • 250,000 Vietnam vets could get benefits under new Agent Orange rules
    Sweeping new presumptions about what medical conditions in Vietnam veterans are the result of exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange could lead to benefits for up to 250,000 more veterans.
    Posted Tuesday Sep 7, 2010 10:01:22 EDT
  • VA tries to regain trust of Gulf War vets
    As the 20-year anniversary of Desert Storm looms, one out of four veterans who served there are sick, even as veterans advocates and the Veterans Affairs Department still bicker.
    Posted Tuesday Aug 3, 2010 15:13:24 EDT
  • All military health facilities offering emergency contraceptives
    Every military treatment facility and health clinic must now stock pills that can prevent pregnancy if taken within three days of having sex.
    Posted Tuesday Feb 16, 2010 12:48:34 EST
  • No combat necessary
    The Department of Veterans Affairs is moving closer to simplifying the process for many veterans to link post-traumatic stress disorder to their military service, whether in a war zone or not, which...
    Posted Tuesday Sep 1, 2009 15:45:44 EDT
  • Support grows to widen VA health care for women
    Momentum is gathering to expand health care services for female veterans, with one of the few remaining disputes — over the number of days of neonatal care for those receiving maternity care at...
    Posted Tuesday Jun 9, 2009 12:16:25 EDT
  • Vets group challenges Shinseki to beef up budget, staff
    A new report from Veterans for Common Sense comes as a reminder of what the Veterans Affairs Department needs to fix: backlogged disability cases, too many suicide attempts and patients waiting weeks...
    Posted Tuesday Feb 24, 2009 16:12:54 EST
  • Retroactive payouts for traumatic injuries
    New rules for receiving up to $100,000 in traumatic injury insurance payments for service members facing long and arduous recovery and rehabilitation were updated and expanded, effective Nov. 26.
    Posted Tuesday Dec 9, 2008 12:59:58 EST
  • Access to dental benefits improves
    A network of dentists and dental specialists will be set up for active-duty members who must seek dental care off-base, under a Defense Department contract awarded to United Concordia Cos.
    Posted Tuesday Nov 4, 2008 12:21:11 EST
  • Official: VA should do more to reach reservists
    Department of Veterans Affairs officials should "burn up some shoe leather" to reach out to help National Guard and reserve troops, an Army Guard colonel in charge of an outreach program in Vermont...
    Posted Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 16:34:35 EDT
  • Board to reassess disability ratings for some service members
    Service members given a disability rating of 20 percent or lower during their medical evaluation boards since Sept. 11, 2001, may have their cases reviewed by a new Defense Department board.
    Posted Tuesday Jul 8, 2008 13:21:24 EDT
  • VA officials grilled on PTSD e-mail
    A Senate hearing called to determine if the Veterans Affairs Department is systemically denying veterans' post-traumatic stress disorder claims in favor of less-costly diagnoses devolved into a...
    Posted Tuesday Jun 10, 2008 16:28:18 EDT
  • Vets’ group: Link between TBI, blindness needs more attention
    A few days after the blast from a mortar round almost threw him off the Hadithah Dam in Iraq three years ago, Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Glenn Minney reported to sick call with a headache and...
    Posted Tuesday Apr 8, 2008 12:58:22 EDT
  • Disability ratings improving, critics say
    A year after Walter Reed Army Medical Center emerged as a symbol of what is wrong with the administrative end of the military medical retirement system, much has changed for the better, critics say.
    Posted Tuesday Mar 4, 2008 16:24:47 EST
  • Automation could speed VA claims
    Artificial intelligence — already used to process private-sector insurance claims, handle banking transactions and double-check medical procedures — might be the solution to help veterans...
    Posted Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 12:58:22 EST
  • On the mend
    When Lt. Col. Chip Pierce served as troop commander at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, he said, he was "frustrated" by some of the issues he saw his injured soldiers face as they made their...
    Posted Tuesday Jan 8, 2008 13:08:48 EST
  • Study: Returning soldiers wait to seek mental health help
    A new Army study finds that soldiers returning from Iraq are more likely to report mental health problems several months later rather than immediately after their return — and reserve component...
    Posted Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 13:06:23 EST
  • Lawmaker: Be patient over wounded benefits
    The Democratic point man for veterans' issues in the House of Representatives is asking wounded service members and their families to be patient while they wait for radical reform of the government's...
    Posted Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 11:36:57 EST
  • Vets urge more action on Gulf War syndrome
    A group of Persian Gulf War veterans told House lawmakers they feel overlooked with all of the focus on benefits and treatment for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Posted Tuesday Jul 31, 2007 13:02:01 EDT
  • Specialists, patients critical of PTSD care
    Experts told the House Veterans' Affairs Committee that reliable methods exist to immediately diagnose and treat post-traumatic stress disorder — but they're not used.
    Posted Wednesday May 23, 2007 10:30:43 EDT
  • Studies identify faults in disability benefits system
    As members of the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission wrestle with simplifying the disability benefits systems of the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, they have found they aren't the...
    Posted Wednesday Dec 31, 1969 19:00:00 EST
  • Lawyer: Disability system unfair to injured
    The Army disability retirement system stacks the deck against injured soldiers by forcing them to prove they have post-traumatic stress disorder, demanding physical evidence for traumatic brain...
    Posted Wednesday Dec 31, 1969 19:00:00 EST
  • Bills aim to improve services for female vets
    Key lawmakers and major veterans groups are stepping up their efforts to improve veterans programs directed at women.
    Posted Wednesday Dec 31, 1969 19:00:00 EST
  • No help for wounded soldier’s mom, she says
    The mother of a severely wounded Army veteran choked back tears Sept. 16 as she told attendees of a seminar on veterans health care that she believes the government has let down her and her son.
    Posted Wednesday Dec 31, 1969 19:00:00 EST
  • Tricare and health reform: What it could mean in the long run
    Defense officials insist that the new national health care reform law has no direct effect on Tricare — but some analysts say indirect effects eventually may surface.
    Posted Wednesday Dec 31, 1969 19:00:00 EST

Tricare


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