Scenario 3: I’m retiring from the military and my daughter is beginning her first year of college in another state.
As a retiree living in a TRICARE Prime service area (PSA), you have the option of re-enrolling yourself and your family members in TRICARE Prime. You will have coverage similar to that which you did as an active duty service member, but you will have to pay an annual enrollment fee and minimal copayments.
For example, if your daughter is attending school in a TRICARE PSA, she can enjoy the benefits of TRICARE Prime while attending school through TRICARE Prime’s split enrollment feature. To use split enrollment, you must notify each family member’s regional contractor of the split enrollment status. The region where enrollment fee payment is made is determined by the sponsor’s TRICARE Prime enrollment location. If the sponsor is not enrolled, the region where payment is made is determined by the next eldest TRICARE Prime family member enrolled. The regional contractors will coordinate enrollment fees and send the statements to the designated payer.
If TRICARE Prime is not offered in your daughter’s area, you may want to disenroll her from TRICARE Prime and have her use TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra. If she stays in TRICARE Prime, she’ll be using the Prime point of service (POS) option for routine care, which can become very costly.
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