Anyone here separate recently from active duty and sign up for Tricare Reserve Select? I'm doing the Palace Front thing and have orders, but I'm kind of getting the run around. Base Tricare office said to got to portal, portal said ineligible contact DEERS, DEERS said can't update because you will immediately fall out of active duty status in DEERS and I need to go back to Tricare office, and no kidding--the Tricare office said go back to the portal! Anyone with similar issues?

 

Ronnie,

Have done a bit of research on the Tricare Reserve(I'm Navy). I was told by my Tricare office that once your DEERS info has been updated to reflect your reserve status you can enroll in Tricare(reserve). I don't think you can pre-enroll if you will(Tricare uses Deers to verify eligibility). Like many other programs from DoD, this program has been implemented and sold to the customer long before the folks implementing it have been given the tools/resources needed to help the customer. If it were me, I would have the Tricare reserve forms ready to go the day I checked out and changed my DEERs info. Your coverage should be retroactive to the day you enrolled. Good luck.

 

Thanks, that is exactly what is happening to me--at least they are consistent.

 

yeah man. just did all this.

You have to be in the reserves/guard first, i.e. swear in, then wait in line at the MPF for 7 hours just to get an ID card that looks exactly like the one you just had and update your info in DEERS...then you can sign up online. The good part, if I remember it correctly is: it can be retroactive for 60 days once you sign up, so you don't technically go without health coverage until you can swear in. So if your kid gets sick before all the paperwork is done, you aren't screwed.

 

Be careful guys...I was separating 9/11/07 (ironic) and joining the reserves 9/12. I tried to sign up "early" (while on terminal leave) so coverage would be in place. You know trying to plan ahead to prevent a "gap in coverage." I looked all over the Tricare website because I was having the "not eligible in DEERS" message too. I also found that even when I signed up on 9/11, my coverage would not start until 1 Oct. When I couldn't figure it out in the plethora of web pages, I clicked on the contact us email link and asked the simple question "If I don't have a break in service, why do I have a break in coverage?" I was surprised that I was contacted by phone the following day. The guy told me that it would all be retroactive for 60 days as necessary once I got all signed up. I didn't just take his word, I picked up the phone and called the main customer service number to speak to Joe Customerserviceguy to see if the story was the same. It was--"60 days is not a problem" he said. As a result of trusting these folks I took my infant for her 3 month checkup (the expensive one with all the shots etc) after my separation date and before all my paperwork made it back to the base. The paperwork has to go to DC, Denver blah blah, and at my base at least does not happen at the speed of light. I couldn't in-process until this paperwork got back on base even though it was back-dated to show effective date of 9/12. The paperwork didn't show up until 9/21 and I inprocessed that day. Problem was that the Guard/Res portal continued to show me ineligible. I called the Tricare and they said I still showed up in their computer as ineligible etc. I made about 20 calls and had trouble log entries trying to get this fixed etc. This had to go the long and slow road to the DEERS people at the PENTAGON finally to find out what was wrong. It turned out that somewhere along the line someone entered my status as IRR instead of SELRES, but that entry did not show up to the MPF people/Portal folks who showed me that it said I was eligible. None of them could figure it out, meanwhile it is 18 Oct and still no TRS. Finally it was corrected at the Pentagon so I try to go sign up on the Portal. Then it said since it was past the 15th of Oct I could only sign up now for 1 Nov!!! Needless to say I called the same guy who originally contacted me and told me 60 day retro etc. He tried to fix it, but I had to fill out this form and that (read: runaround), but I just had to stop the bleeding. I signed up for 1 Nov just to get it started and would fight for the retro stuff. I was told to write a letter along with the TRS form titled Request for Reconsideration and Late Enrollment to explain MY tardiness in signing up. In the 25 Oct letter I told the story and asked for my coverage to be back-dated to 12 Sep. A few days went by and I got a call from a generally helpful lady that said she couldn't back-date into the previous FY, and that my DEERS record now only showed eligibility back to 1 Oct not 12 Sep in any case. I convinced her to back date me to 1 Oct for now and would reengage for the other two weeks which included the pricey Dr. visit. I am STILL fighting about this to this day, and eventually had to pay the $800 Dr's bill out of pocket to keep going to the pediatrician. Keep in mind that the billing rate is higher when billed to your insurance of which they will only have to pay their in-network contract rate. When TRS refuses to pay because you are "not eligible," you get to pay this max bill rate instead of a direct patient rate as another kick in the jimmy for good measure.

Long, long, long story short: Don't believe that it will be so easy to get the 60 days retro and don't count on enrollment happening quickly. My advice: get your checkups/routine visits etc before your separation date and don't count on the retro stuff if you can help it. Oh, and hope no one enters you as a IRR if you are SELRES!!

Best of luck--At least better than mine...Philly

 

Awesome, thanks. My wife is due to give birth 5 days after I separate. I think I'll sign up for civillian health care now as a back up.

 

Probably a good idea...a few days or weeks without a plan can bankrupt you if it comes at the wrong time.

For those who have had trouble with the TRICARE AD to reserve transition, contact your relevant reserve association and congressman. There's a problem if a DEERS technicality won't allow a seemless transition. Actually I suspect that it's supposed to be retroactive, but claims managers get paid to deny coverage wherever possible

 

Just FYI...

When I went from active duty to FTS (TAR) my designator (USN) changed from 1310 to 1317. They are both active duty designators but I was dropped from Tricare and had to "resubmit" my paperwork. I took this way up the Tricare chain as I was never anything but active and my son was denied a sick call visit. Their response was anytime you change from the regular active designator it is assumed you got out...i.e. programmed in the software. Everyone of my buddies had to resubmit when going SELRES or FTS. My recommendation...

Track and push your status change in DEERS. The instant you show as reserve submit the forms with TRICARE. Get friendly with the DEERS and TRICARE office personnel beforehand to help you fast track the process. If I remember correctly there was still a time delay (few days) for the "re-enrollment" to take effect.

Good Luck

 

One more comment from someone who's done it:

ditto on everything Philly said; log who/when you talk to. DON'T believe what 1800-tri... tells you, not sure where they find these people, but they'll tell you anything to get you off the phone!!

As explained to me, TriCare's system can't forecast your status (only looks at "TODAY" in DEERS). So you HAVE to fill out ppwork once your status changes. One other note to look forward to, if you go on orders for 30+ days, you qualify for Tricare Prime again, but make sure your status changes don't outrun your paperwork. They say that causes HUGE problems, ie:

Good: status change1 > paper work1 > status change2 > paperwork2
NOT: status change1 > status change2 > ppwk1 > ppwk2, etc.

Also, I went from TRS back to Prime because I went back on orders, so get this: My whole family was on Prime with TRS, but when I re-signed them up to Prime via my contingency orders, they had to wait until the following 1st of month, ie: resulting break in coverage...not good for wife+2yr+9mo.

I'd print out 50 adressed envelopes to your congressman and just keep writing.

 

What about disability? Can you get disability if you don't have the company's health insurance.