• This page contains the link to the Benefits A-Z area which explains what is covered, excluded or has limitations.as well as important cost information.
• TRICARE ® Covered Services Take an active role in verifying your TRICARE coverage This fact sheet is. For additional information, please visit www.tricare.mil. TRICARE covers most care that is medically necessary. Considered proven. There are special rules and limitations.

Q. My Air Force retiree husband and I use Tricare Standard. We are considering going with another policy through his employer, which would make Tricare our secondary insurance. If we take this step, is there anything we need to do to make it official, or does the fact that we are already on Tricare Standard simply make it so? I do understand that Tricare is always last payer.

Tricare Select Specialist Copay Program

TRICARE Reserve Select vision benefits include one routine eye exam per year for you and for any eligible family members also included on your plan. Additional specialty services will be charged under the specialty copay or cost-sharing options, which vary based on whether the provider is in or out of network.

A. Yes, you would need to take a couple of relatively simply actions.

First, you'd have to tell your Tricare regional contractor that you have other health insurance, referred to as OHI.

The form that you would need to fill out and send to your regional contractor can be downloaded here: http://tricare.mil/Resources/Forms/OHI.aspx

Tricare Select Specialist Copay Online

Then whenever you are in need of health care, you would have to tell your health care provider that you have both OHI and Tricare Standard.

Toll-free contact information for all Tricare regional contractors is here: www.tricare.mil/ContactUs/CallUs.aspx

You can get more information on how Tricare works with OHI here: www.tricare.mil/ohi

Tricare Select Specialist Copay Center

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Q. I just got married to a Marine at Camp Pendleton, California, but have not yet interacted with DEERS. Am I automatically enrolled in Tricare, or do I have to do it manually after going through DEERS?

A. Before you can use any Tricare benefits, your husband — your 'military sponsor' — must register you in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System and get you a family member military ID card.

Once that's squared away, how you access your Tricare benefits will depend on which Tricare plan you intend to use. Your husband, as an active-duty Marine, must use Tricare Prime, the military's version of Health Maintenance Organization. But you are free to use Prime or Tricare Standard, the military's version of a fee-for-service plan.

Prime requires enrollment; Standard does not. Prime normally requires you to coordinate your care through a primary care manager, who would make any referrals for specialty care as necessary. Under Standard, you may see any Tricare-authorized provider without a referral whenever you need care, simply by showing your military family member ID card and telling the provider you are covered by Tricare Standard.

However, Standard tends to carry higher out-of-pocket costs than Prime in terms of co-pays and cost shares.

You can read more about the features and costs of the various Tricare options here: www.tricare.mil/Plans/HealthPlans.aspx

Tricare Select Specialty Copay

You can also get more information from the managed-care contractor for the Tricare region in which you live, which is Tricare West.

The contractor for that region is UnitedHealthcare Military & Veterans; call their customer service line toll-free at 877-988-9378.