Tricare Help: Losing Tricare coverage a few weeks before giving birth - Getting out, military health issues - Navy Times

Tricare Help: Losing Tricare coverage a few weeks before giving birth

Answering your questions on Tricare.

Q. My husband is on active duty and will separate from service Oct. 22. I am pregnant and my due date is Nov. 3. I’m trying to figure out if my entire pregnancy will be covered. I know that I will be covered until Oct. 22, but what about after?

A. When your husband is discharged, you will lose your Tricare coverage at midnight of that day. That’s a matter of federal law — Tricare has no authority to extend eligibility for any reason, even if you are in labor. You would not be put out on the front lawn to deliver, but there would be charges for your care and the baby’s care after midnight on the date of your husband’s discharge.

If longer care is needed, however, the military hospital will likely make efforts to transfer you and the baby to a civilian hospital. However, that could present a problem because you will have no health insurance. You may want to discuss that possibility with the patient administration office at your military hospital.

Your husband may be able to get some help from his personnel section. He might be able to extend his enlistment for a period long enough for your baby to be born and for you to receive any postnatal care.

If your husband cannot extend his enlistment, or chooses not to, another possibility is the Continued Health Care Benefit Program. That’s a commercial health insurance plan created by the Defense Department especially for people who recently lost Tricare eligibility for whatever reason.

It provides coverage similar to Tricare Standard, but it can be purchased in short-term blocks of a few weeks at a time. It’s not cheap — premiums are $988 per quarter for individual coverage, and $2,213 per quarter for family coverage — but it does the job.

Learn more about CHCBP online or by calling 800-444-5445.

Q. Am I covered by my Tricare for Life while traveling in England?

A. Tricare for Life coverage consists of Medicare and Tricare Standard coverage, but from the moment you leave U.S. waters or airspace, your Medicare coverage ceases. Until you return, your only coverage will be Tricare Standard. For any overseas care, Tricare Standard will make the same payments and charge the same cost shares as though you did not have Medicare.

For that reason, make sure you save every scrap of paperwork from any care you receive while on your trip. You’ll need those documents to file claims with Tricare Standard for those services.

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