The Long Blue Line (Winter 2021)
Quarterly magazine for retirees of the Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
Quarterly magazine for retirees of the Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
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TRICARE SELECT<br />
U.S. COAST GUARD RETIREE INFORMATION<br />
CG RETIREE SERVICES<br />
(CG-1335)<br />
Tricare Select<br />
Enrollment Fees<br />
In the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress approved a request from<br />
the DoD to implement enrollment fees for what was then known as Tricare Standard, now called<br />
Tricare Select. With the announcement of the new enrollment fees, all military retirees under age<br />
65 will be paying a baseline for participating in Tricare. Military.Com published a related article<br />
on 20 June 2020, which is accessible at: www.military.com/daily-news/2020/06/24/pentagonretirees-plan-now-tricare-select-enrollment-fees-<strong>2021</strong>.html.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following information was<br />
included in this article:<br />
• Defense health officials said these<br />
retirees can expect to hear from their<br />
regional contractors -- either Health<br />
Net Federal Services for Tricare West<br />
or Humana Military for Tricare East<br />
-- in the coming months instructing<br />
them on how to set up payments,<br />
either by allotment from their retired<br />
pay, electronic funds transfer, debit<br />
or credit card.<br />
• Dr. Danita Hunter, director of Tricare<br />
at the Defense Health Agency, said<br />
the DHA decided to issue a news<br />
release now to give beneficiaries<br />
time to prepare and factor the fees<br />
into their decisions on health care.<br />
"We're communicating this well<br />
before the change is implemented so<br />
beneficiaries can be informed about<br />
the change, as well as their Tricare<br />
plan and cost options," Hunter said<br />
in the release.<br />
Unfortunately, all affected CG/PHS/NOAA retirees were not properly<br />
informed about the new Tricare Select enrollment fees AND the<br />
current available payment methods. CG GovDelivery newsfeeds were<br />
sent to all retiree e-mail addresses listed in DA to help ensure affected<br />
retirees were made aware of the enrollment fees and that, while Tricare<br />
could “initiate” retiree allotments, the Coast Guard Pay System, Direct<br />
Access, was not capable of processing retiree allotments for payment<br />
of enrollment fees that were due on 1 January <strong>2021</strong>. Consequently, these<br />
fees required payment by EFT or credit card.<br />
We recommend that CG/PHS/NOAA retirees enrolled in<br />
Tricare Select contact their Tricare Provider to ensure<br />
January premiums have been correctly processed.<br />
According to the Tricare website, retirees who did not<br />
set up payment of enrollment fees by EFT or credit<br />
card by 31 Dec 2020 would have 180 days to pay their<br />
enrollment fee and their coverage would be reinstated<br />
with an effective date of 1 January <strong>2021</strong> – eliminating<br />
a risk of a lapse in coverage as long as the enrollment<br />
fee was paid within 180 days.<br />
www.tricare.mil/Plans/Enroll/Select<br />
62 WINTER <strong>2021</strong><br />
THE LONG BLUE LINE
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