Eligibility
Your children remain eligible for TRICARE up to age 21 (or age 23 if enrolled in college full-time and the sponsor provides at least 50 percent of the financial support) as long as their information is kept up to date in DEERS. To extend benefits for your college student beyond his or her 21st birthday, please contact DEERS to verify what documentation is needed to extend coverage. Representatives there will be able to advise you about the documentation you need to update DEERS and extend coverage. Note: In most cases, children going overseas to attend college on their own are eligible only for TRICARE Standard in the overseas area.
If your child loses DEERS eligibility, his or her TRICARE Prime coverage will end automatically. If you believe your child is still eligible for TRICARE, you will need to contact DEERS to update his or her record. Once DEERS is updated, you must contact Humana Military for information if you want to re-enroll your child in TRICARE Prime. Otherwise, your child will be covered under TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra.
TRICARE benefits end when your college student reaches age 23 or when full-time student status ends, whichever comes first. For example, if your child turns 23 on January 3, but doesn’t graduate until May, coverage ends at midnight on January 2.
Note: Children with a disability may remain eligible for TRICARE beyond the normal age limits. Please check with DEERS for eligibility criteria.
Health Care Options
If TRICARE Prime is available where your child is attending school and the school is in the TRICARE South region, your child only needs to select a new primary care manager (PCM). If the school is in a different TRICARE region, your child may remain enrolled in TRICARE Prime using the split-enrollment feature if TRICARE Prime is available in that area.
Split Enrollment
Split enrollment allows families living in separate TRICARE regions to enroll in TRICARE Prime together. To use split enrollment, you must notify each family member’s regional contractor of the split enrollment status and establish one family payer for enrollment fees (where applicable). The regional contractors will coordinate enrollment fees and send the statements to the designated payer. An enrollment fee left unpaid causes the entire family to be disenrolled. Key points to remember with split enrollment:
- Families with college students, children living with former spouses, or families otherwise separated can enroll together in separate regions.
- Active duty families are not required to pay enrollment fees, but they can still enroll in separate regions.
- Retiree families have only one enrollment fee and one enrollment anniversary date.
- There is no limit on the number of family members enrolling.
- In most cases, only those family members who accompany their active duty sponsor on his or her orders overseas will be enrolled in TRICARE Overseas Program Prime options.
If your child does not enroll in TRICARE Prime, he or she will be covered automatically by TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra as long as his or her information is kept up to date in DEERS. Contact Humana Military if you have questions about using TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra.
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