By Sharon A. DeVaney, member, Surviving Spouse Advisory Committee

• When servicemembers and dependents turn 65 and they enroll in Medicare, they also will become eligible for No fees are associated with TFL, however, beneficiaries must pay the Medicare Part B premiums to stay enrolled in TFL. TFL works as the secondary payer to Medicare; Medicare pays 80 percent of covered services, and TFL pays the remaining 20 percent. TFL also pays the Medicare deductible. Generally, beneficiaries should not have any out-of-pocket costs for Medicare and TRICARE-covered services.

Under provisions of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), TRICARE benefit plans for servicemembers and dependents under age 65 will be streamlined from three plan types to two. TRICARE Select is the new preferred provider option; it will replace TRICARE Standard. The new TRICARE Select will have an Extra-like network of TRICARE providers who will have agreed to accept a pre-negotiated rate of payment. The other option is TRICARE Prime. It will be modernized so the majority of referrals to specialists from primary care managers will no longer be required to through a pre-authorization process.

TRICARE also has new preventive care coverage, including the Cologuard colorectal cancer screening exam and BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene testing for breast cancer. For children and families, TRICARE’s benefit coverage will be consistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ standards of care of well children over age 6. Beneficiaries using TRICARE Standard no longer will pay cost shares for well-child screening and preventive visits. Learn more about the new preventive care coverage on MOAA’s website.

Regarding pharmacy changes, TRICARE Pharmacy contractor, Express Scripts, announced CVS pharmacies no longer would process prescriptions as of Dec. 1, 2016. Instead, Walgreens pharmacies returned to the TRICARE network. Beneficiaries who had been using CVS should have been notified how they could transfer their prescriptions to a nearby network pharmacy. You can find your closest TRICARE network pharmacy using the Express Scripts website.

The FY 2017 NDAA also included a provision that would allow dependents of retired members to purchase hearing aids at-cost. MOAA is working closely with DoD’s TRICARE department on the details of this benefit and likely will have updates in a few months.