Tricare Help: Can I get Tricare again if I remarry my ex? - Getting out, military health issues - Navy Times

Tricare Help: Can I get Tricare again if I remarry my ex?

Answering your questions on Tricare.

Q. My husband and I recently got divorced, and I obviously lost my access to Tricare. Thankfully, we have since reconciled and all is going great. My question is, if we remarry after he retires with full benefits, can I be covered under his Tricare again?

Congratulations on your reconciliation. At the moment you become legally married to an active-duty or retired uniformed service member — regardless of whether you’ve been married to him before — you immediately become eligible for Tricare.

To use Tricare, however, your husband must register you with the Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System, or DEERS, just as he did the first time. You will need a new military ID card.

In other words, nothing will change except that you were not eligible for Tricare coverage of any medical care you received while you were divorced.

Your Tricare coverage ended on the date your divorce was final. It will begin again on the date you remarry. Please note that the date cutoffs are strict: If you marry on Wednesday, medical care you got on Tuesday cannot be covered.

For help re-establishing your Tricare eligibility, call the DEERS support office at 800-538-9552.

Q. I am a federal employee and a mobilized reservist on active duty, so I have my federal employer’s Aetna plan, as well as Tricare. I recently found out that my son, who has cerebral palsy, is covered by Medicaid. He had major surgery after I was mobilized. How are the benefits coordinated?

By law, Tricare is always last payer to all other health insurance, medical plans such as HMOs, or medical payments such as those you might receive from an auto accident, slip-and-fall injury and the like.

The only exceptions to that rule are when the other coverage is a bona fide, specially written Tricare supplement or a welfare-related plan such as Medicaid (not Medicare), Indian Health Service or the like.

In your son’s case, the order of filing depends on his coverage. If he has Aetna, those claims must be filed first. Then you can file with Tricare, which will probably pay all, or most, of Aetna’s deductibles and co-payments. Finally, claims can be filed with Medicaid.

Write to Tricare Help, Times News Service, 6883 Commercial Drive, Springfield, VA 22159; or e-mail us. In e-mail, include the word “Tricare” in the subject line and do not attach files. Get Tricare advice anytime on our blog.