|
Weekly newsletter of the Fleet Reserve Association
January 5 2018
In this issue:
New TRICARE Fees
TRICARE Changes Causes Glitch for Some Retirees
Bill to Reduce Obstacles for Vets and Active Duty Commercial Driver's Licenses Passes
New TRICARE Fees
Despite FRA Legislative Team efforts, the final National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA-H.R.2810-Public Law 115-91) included pharmacy
copay increases. Effective February 1, 2018, beneficiaries will see
increases in their cost shares across all medication tiers, which will
save the Department of Defense (DoD) more than $2.1 billion by 2022, and
fund improvements in military readiness and the Special Survivor
Indemnity Allowance (SSIA). Most of the increases will be through the
retail pharmacy sector, but beneficiaries can still obtain medications
at Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) pharmacies for free.
Costs for
TRICARE benefits will be charged by Calendar Year (January 1 – December
31) instead of (October 1 – September 30). The new fees will include
mail-order generic prescriptions as well. These costs will gradually
increase until 2026, when costs will be $14 for a 30-day supply of a
generic medication at a retail pharmacy and a 90-day supply by mail.
Further, a 30-day supply of a non-generic medication at a retail
pharmacy will be $48 and a 90-day supply by mail will cost $44.
Additionally,
outside of the NDAA provision, the DHA has implemented a regulation
that provides for a new TRICARE fee structure that will be applied to
the new TRICARE Select option that replaced TRICARE Standard. Increased
fees also will apply to the existing TRICARE Prime option. Beneficiaries
can view these changes by clicking here.
TRICARE Changes Causes Glitch for Some Retirees
As a result of contractor changes effective January 1, 2018, some
TRICARE Prime retirees in northern states (approximately 4,000) did not
get charged for their annual enrollment fee. TRICARE-for-Life (TFL)
beneficiaries are NOT impacted by this glitch. As previously reported in
Newsbytes, starting January 1, 2018, TRICARE's beneficiaries in the
United States will be covered by two regions—TRICARE East and
West—instead of three. The mistake occurred as Humana Military, the new
East region contractor, moved TRICARE North users into its system.
Retired TRICARE Prime users pay an annual enrollment fee. Starting
January 1, 2018, those fees are $289.08 for a single user or $578.16 for
a family. Retirees can select to pay their annual enrollment fee as
monthly payments through allotments—$24.09 for a single user or $48.18
for a family—or as the single lump sum. Because of the new change from a
fiscal to calendar year system, that lump sum payment is now due in
January.
For most
TRICARE Prime retirees, payments were automatically redirected to the
TRICARE North contractor, HealthNet and sent to Humana. However, 4,053
Prime beneficiaries in the former North region were not included in the
data file sent to the new contractor in the East region. This error was
discovered during the transition reconciliation process.
The
Humana website states, "If you received a notice about making automatic
payments through a credit card or bank fund transfer and are currently
using allotment for payment, please disregard the notification, we
appreciate your patience and apologize for any confusion this may have
caused."
TRICARE
officials said retirees should be able to see whether or not they are
among the impacted users by checking their January paycheck for the
missed allotment.
"Humana
will be sending letters to those impacted users asking for a one-time
payment of the missed amount," said TRICARE officials. It can be paid by
calling Humana at 1-800-444-5445 or by clicking here.
Bill Passed to Reduce Obstacles for Vets and Active Duty Commercial Driver's Licenses
On the last day of session for calendar year 2017, Sen. John Cornyn
(Tex.) praised the House passage of the "Jobs for Our Heroes Act"
(S.1393). A bill he sponsored that was championed in the House by Rep.
Rob Woodall (Ga.) to reduce barriers for active-duty military,
reservists and veterans applying for Commercial Driver's Licenses
(CDLs). The bill would streamline the application process to these
applicants. There is
currently a shortage of CDL drivers and this bill is intended to speed
up the process to fill these vacancies. Additionally, it would allow
states to permanently waive license requirements for current service
members and Reserve Component members, if they have military experience
driving a comparable vehicle. The bill goes to President Trump, who is
expected to sign it into law.
____________________
|