One of two emerging TRICARE coverage gaps highlighted by MOAA and fellow advocacy groups last year has been closed, the latest success in ongoing efforts to ensure the plan keeps pace with private-sector care.

TRICARE began covering Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) earlier this year, according to a press release from medical technology company Monteris Medical. The procedure allows surgeons to target brain lesions and other abnormal brain tissue with greater accuracy, including in areas of the brain where the abnormalities could cause drug-resistant epilepsy.

While Medicare and other private sector plans already covered the procedure, TRICARE as of 2025 still considered LITT to be an unproven technique. MOAA and fellow members of The Military Coalition – a group of dozens of organizations representing about 5.5 million members of the wider uniformed services community – highlighted this coverage gap in a 2025 letter to the Defense Health Agency (DHA).

A similar success story came earlier in 2025, when DHA announced provisional coverage for a drug treating early stage Alzheimer’s disease. MOAA and The Military Coalition pushed for the closure of that coverage gap in 2024.

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More Work Remains

DHA has yet to address a coverage gap involving JAK inhibitors for patients with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss. Medicare and many private sector providers cover the medications (Litfulo and others). 

Other TRICARE coverage gaps targeted by MOAA and fellow advocates include:

• Chiropractic care and acupuncture for pain management.
• Reproductive services, to include in vitro fertilization.
• Coverage of young adult dependents (under age 26) in line with commercial plan requirements (and without the significant added costs faced by those using the TRICARE Young Adult plan).

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MOAA also continues its work to reverse the 2025 decision to discontinue coverage of GLP-1 weight loss drugs for TRICARE For Life (TFL) beneficiaries (except those taking the drugs to treat Type 2 diabetes). As more GLP-1 options emerge under Medicare Part D and other health plans, it’s become clear DHA must address this issue to ensure those covered by TFL are not unfairly excluded.

Not only are some of these beneficiaries forced to choose between life-changing treatment and financial well-being, all current and future TFL users could see reductions in drug coverage should this move trigger a two-tier (TRICARE/TFL) pharmacy system.

Learn how you can help support MOAA’s work to protect service-earned health care and other benefits by registering at our Legislative Action Center.