Military retirees and their families in Manhattan and the surrounding area are invited to come to a community briefing on Saturday regarding changes to Tricare health plans.
Benefit counselors from Irwin Army Community Hospital will be at the Manhattan Public Library at 10 a.m. to inform people about what to expect under the changes to Tricare.
No longer will Tricare recipients be able to change their health plans at will. Instead, people will only be able to switch plans during an open season period that starts on November 12 and runs until December 10 this year. New plans go into effect at the start of 2019.
Benefits advisor Jennifer Aguirre told KMAN the changes are to make Tricare mirror the civilian commercial insurance model.
“I think they’re just trying to streamline it a little bit so there’s not as much question on ‘how much will I pay for this’ or ‘when can I make changes to that’,” Aguirre said. “They’re just kind of laying out those ground rules.”
Recipients and their families will be given an opportunity to change plans outside of the open season within a 90 day period following a qualifying life event. Those include having a child, moving residences, children reaching adulthood, as well as getting married or divorced. More details can be found at the Tricare site. Aguirre did mention that though birth is a qualifying life event, pregnancy itself is not.
“So if you know you’re going to want to have your OBGYN of choice, then you’re going to want to go ahead and change to Tricare Select during this open season so you’ll have that availability and that freedom of choice come 2019,” said Aguirre. “If you do not make that change, then you’re going to be locked in to the plan you have now.”
Aguirre added that moving residences does not include a soldier receiving a permanent change of station and it also does not count as a qualifying life event.
“That just means if you move from Junction City to Manhattan or Clay Center to Wakefield [you can change your plan outside of open season],” Aguirre said. “A zip code change is a qualifying life event.”
The Tricare retiree dental program will also end at the end of the year and be replaced by 10 different dental plans. Four different vision plans will also become available to go into effect in 2019 as well. Retirees will not be automatically enrolled into one of these plans, so they are encouraged to take action and choose a new plan. Details on plans and premium rates are available on the Tricare website.
Folks in Kansas looking to enroll, change a plan, or just ask questions about changes to Tricare can reach out online, by phone at 1-877-888-3337, or in person at Irwin Army Community Hospital.
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