TRICARE is the name of the new regional managed health care program for service families. TRICARE is worldwide. Under TRICARE, you'll generally have three choices of ways in which you get health care: TRICARE Standard, TRICARE Extra, TRICARE Prime.
TRICARE Standard (formerly known as CHAMPUS) pays a cost of covered health care services that you obtain from an authorized non-network civilian health care provider. There is no enrollment in TRICARE Standard. You will pay the normal TRICARE Standard deductibles for outpatient care, depending on the sponsors rank, and once the deductibles are met, cost sharing percentages of 20% of the allowable charge will be assessed per civilian health care visit. With some providers, have to pay the bill you may yourself and then file the claim for reimbursement, minus your co-payment and/or deductible amount). You may even be billed for the amount of the bill, which was above what TRICARE normally pays for that type of procedure or visit.
TRICARE Extra
TRICARE Extra is a network of credentialed civilian healthcare professionals. TRICARE Extra offers you the choice to receive your care from network civilian providers who offer lower cost shares compared to TRICARE Standard. It includes all the services covered under TRICARE Standard and uses TRICARE rules, but offers added conveniences and lower out of picket costs. You do have to pay annual deductibles, as TRICARE Standard, but the providers in the TRICARE Extra network agree not to charge more than the TRICARE maximum allowable charge and they file the claim. Your out of pocket costs, once your annual deductible has been met is 15% of the network providers charge.
TRICARE Prime
TRICARE Prime offers your family preventive and primary care services from one convenient source as well as covering all the health care benefits included in TRICARE Standard and Extra. You must enroll to use this option. When you choose TRICARE Prime, you select a TRICARE Prime Site/Primary Care Manager (PCM) conveniently located near you. Your Primary Care Manager will either provide or coordinate all of your health care needs, maintain your health records and refer you to specialists when appropriate, or arrange for you to be admitted to a hospital when necessary. There are no deductibles with TRICARE Prime, which is different from TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra. TRICARE eligible family members of active duty personnel do no have annual enrollment fees.
To obtain more information concerning any of the three options of TRICARE you can call 1-800-931-9501. Beneficiaries of the Military Health System can also find more information concerning their TRICARE benefits by using the web sites.