JetJocF14

Any differance as to wheather you live in memphis or not. I for one hate HMO's but that just cause I had a bad experience with one long time ago...

FXDX

How do you get Tricare to pay for the copayments?

FDXLAG

You tell your doctor you have Cigna Primary and Tricare secondary and the rest should not be your problem. Haven't paid a copay in two years. If you live in a non military town it may be tougher as the doc will have less knowledge of tricare.

Jetjok

Here's how it works right now (using United Healthcare) will also work when we have Anthem.
1. You have to be a member of Tricare.
2. You visit your provider (say your family doctor) and tell the person doing the billing that you have Tricare as a secondary insurer. This of course is a one time thing.
3. Your provider sends a bill for services to United Healthcare.
4. United Healthcare sends an Explanation Of Benefits (EOB) to both you and the providers' office.
5. Your providers' office then sends that same EOB to Tricare.
6. Tricare, upon receipt of the EOB, determines how much they will pay the provider, sends the provider a check for said amount, and sends you another EOB, outlining how much they have paid. If there is any balance left, you will then have to pay that small amount.
7. That's how is works.

As a further note to you military pukes, Tricare will also pick up, again, for the most part, your co-pay on any medications you and/or your family might use, with the exception of Busboy and his Viagra.

Hope this helps.

Of course, this is the same methodology that a civilian backgrounded guy would use if he had a secondary carrier.

FXDX

Thanks for the info, one more question. Do you have to pay the Tricare premiums to get the secondary insurance? As a retiree I have stopped paying into Tricare, using only the FedEx medical. We do use Tricare to get prescriptions because the copay is usually lower, so we have some basic coverage. I didn't know that Tricare would pay the copay on Doctor visits, that is a great benefit if you don't have to pay the Tricare Prime premiums.

FDXLAG

I have TRICARE STD and they pickup the copays.

Jetjok

I agree, there are 3 options with Tricare, two of which require a premium payment, while the third, Tricare Standard, does not. I also use the standard version.

FDXLAG

They one glitch is Tricare takes forever and then some to pay. Some doctors get impatient. I tell them to just wait for hillarycare 2.

DLax85

No...just make sure you and your family members are properly enrolled in DEERS and make sure you are in TRICARE std.

No need to make the quarterly or annual TRICARE Prime payments.

I live in a non-military town and it still works great!

DLax85

My research has shown the Tricare Standard Pharmancy co-pay to be lower then the CIGNA co-pay, so that's what we have been using.

My wife simply tells the pharmacist we have both CIGNA and TRICARE Standard and asks which is the cheaper co-pay.....for the past year it's always been TRICARE.

Now JJ, are you saying I should actually be using my CIGNA benefits and then somehow submitting that expense to TRICARE to reimburse me, effectively giving me zero out of pocket cost?

Do I have to submit the paperwork myself...or can the pharmacist file it with both like my doctor does?

I've been using TRICARE Std to cover all of my CIGNA doctor office/emergency room/surgery copays but not for perscriptions.

Thanks.