Tricare Help: Why you can’t access records of college-age daughter - Marine Corps Health Issues | Marine Corps Times

Tricare Help: Why you can’t access records of college-age daughter

Answering your questions on Tricare.

Q. My daughter is 19 and a college student in another state. I tried to help her with a Tricare claim and was refused any information about it. She would not even have Tricare except for my military service. Why does Tricare refuse to let me help her with this?

Your feelings aside, your daughter is no longer your little girl. Under federal law, she is an adult. That means information about her Tricare claims and medical care are protected by the Privacy Act without her written permission for you to have access to it.

Tricare did not deny you the chance to help her; it merely denied your access to information about her personal affairs in the absence of her written permission. If you can send that permission to Tricare, it will make any specified information available to you.

Q. I’ll be 65 in April, but I won’t become eligible for Social Security benefits until I am almost 67. When do I sign up for Tricare for Life?

When Congress changed the law to delay payment of Social Security benefits until later than the previously universal age 65, it did not change the date for Medicare entitlement. That remains the first day of the month of your 65th birthday.

With two exceptions, federal law requires all Tricare beneficiaries to be enrolled in Medicare Part B on the same date that their Medicare Part A entitlement becomes effective. If they are not enrolled in Part B on that date, the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting Service, or DEERS, will automatically terminate their Tricare eligibility until they have Medicare Part B in effect.

The two exceptions to that rule:

• People whose Tricare sponsor is on active duty.

• People enrolled in the U.S. Family Health Plan.

Neither group is required to be enrolled in Part B on the effective date of their Part A coverage.

To be eligible for Tricare for Life, you must have Medicare Part A and Part B in effect and be enrolled in Tricare Standard. If you are enrolled in Tricare Prime, it will be switched automatically to Tricare Standard when your Medicare Parts A and B coverage become effective.

Until you become entitled to receive Social Security payments, Medicare will send you a bill every 90 days for your Part B premium. When you begin to receive Social Security payments, the premium will be deducted from those checks.

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Write to Tricare Help, Times News Service, 6883 Commercial Drive, Springfield, VA 22159; or tricarehelp@militarytimes.com. In e-mail, include the word “Tricare” in the subject line and do not attach files. Get Tricare advice any time at our blog.