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Surviving spouses and children of members who served on active duty for 30 days or more, and who died during that service on or after October 7, 2001 are now eligible for extended TRICARE benefits.

If your qualifying active duty sponsor dies, you are eligible for TRICARE as an active duty family member for three years without interruption as long as your information in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) is correct. This means your TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Prime Remote for Active Duty Family Members (TPRADFM) costs will not increase, and your coverage will not change unless you change your program option. During this time, you will be considered a “transitional survivor.”

The new policy, effective Nov. 1, 2006, allows the deceased sponsor’s minor children and unmarried dependent children to remain in transitional survivor status at the active duty payment rate. This transitional status continues until the children reach age 21, or up to age 23 if they are enrolled full-time in a college or other institute of higher learning Note: For benefits to continue to age 23, a child must have been receiving more than 50 percent of their financial support from their sponsor at the time of their death. A child with a disability may remain eligible for TRICARE beyond the normal age limits. Call DEERS at 1-800-538-9552 for questions about eligibility.

Transitional survivors are also eligible for active-duty-specific programs such as the Extended Care Health Option (ECHO) and hearing aids. Eligibility for these additional programs and benefits is retroactive to October 7, 2001, or the day TRICARE implemented the program, whichever is later.

TRICARE is now reprocessing medical claims originally paid at the retiree payment rate at the new transitional survivor active duty family member payment rate. Please contact Humana Military if you feel you are due a refund of enrollment fees, cost-shares or copayments paid at the retiree rate.

At the end of the three-year transitional survivor benefit period, a surviving spouse’s TRICARE coverage continues with some changes. If you are currently enrolled in TRICARE Prime, you will need to re-enroll and begin paying annual enrollment fees to continue TRICARE Prime coverage. Note: TPRADFM is not available after the three-year period. Therefore, if you are enrolled in TPRADFM, you will need to enroll in TRICARE Prime (if available) and may need to choose a new primary care manager. If the spouse is not in a Prime service area, coverage continues under TRICARE Standard. If you do not want to enroll or re-enroll in TRICARE Prime, you will be covered by TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra. Children continue to be covered under TRICARE Prime until they “age-out” as described above, even if the time exceeds three years.

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Last Updated:  March 3, 2008