Military Moms -- Tricare/DEERS questions

ksnyder06 · October 2010

Hi Ladies

Every time I go to my appointment I forget to stop by the Tricare office to ask this. Now that its on my mind I figured I'd just ask on here. I did go to the site but wasn't able to figure out exactly what happens. Here is what the site says...

"Children are covered as TRICARE Prime beneficiaries for 60 days after birth or adoption, as long as one other family member is enrolled in TRICARE Prime. To keep your child enrolled after the first 60 days, you must submit an enrollment application to your regional contractor within 60 days of the birth or adoption."

To me that sounds like once she is born she'll be covered automatically since my husband and I are both covered. That we'll have 60 days to bring her in and enroll her to keep her on Tricare Prime. Did I understand that properly?

Here are my questions to things I'm unsure of:

1. Will we need to notify them of the childs birth or does the hospital do that? I'll be delivering at the Army base near by.

2. If she will be automatically covered for the first 60 days before we enroll her, who will she go see? Does this mean I schedule an appointment with any available pediatrician in our clinic until re-enrolling her?

I'm not sure if they will assign her a pediatrician for us from day one or if she'll get one assigned after we re-enroll her.

3. Do they assign a pediatrician or do we? I only ask because we didn't chose our PCMs, they chose ours for us.

Sorry if these all seem like obviously stupid questions.. just want to get our facts straight. If I don't get info from here, I'll just speak with someone at my next appointment. I just couldn't find all that info on the site.

Thanks for any responses.

frostyprincess24 · October 2010

This is my first, so I will try to answer your questions as best as I can.

Yes, your child is covered automatically as Tricare Prime for the first 60 days after birth (since at least one of you is Prime), after that they will go to being Tricare Standard, unless you submit the paperwork to have them covered under Prime.

1. You will need to notify DEERS of the birth of your child, even if you are delivering at a military hospital. Do this within like 3 days (I think) it is what will list your child on your DH's Page 2 and acknowledge them as being his dependent. While it is separate from Tricare, it is also what will make sure they are covered for that first 60 day period.

2. I believe that since you go to a MTF for your health care you would just make appointments for your child there during the 60 period (or until you submit the paperwork and the assign a PCM for your child). I believe a lot of the time (at least at our base clinic) you don't always end up seeing the person who is listed as your PCM (or your child's) 100% of the time anyway.

3. If you choose to keep your child in Tricare Prime, Tricare will assign a pediatrician, if you choose to go Standard you will have the option to pick one out in town. If you still want to see someone out in town, but remain Tricare Prime you will have to submit a request to be able to choose your own pediatrician (the likelihood of it being approved is completely dependent upon the area that you live in and the local Tricare office)

Like I said, this is my first as well, so I am not 100% sure on the workings, but this is what I have learned so far from local information sessions. I hope this helps.

cearleyjay · October 2010

the hospital will give you a temporary birth cert. that you will take to the DEERS office. that you have to do like right away. then once you get the real one you have to take it back to DEERS. then you have to go back again once you get the social security card. we also had to fill out paper work at the tricare office in our hospital.

one thing i learned after having my second child is that they are making it mandatory for ALL children to have a dependant ID card. yes, how stupid is that? very stupid for a baby in my opinion. i found this out when my DH tried to take our son to his doctors appt. they had a fit because me (his sponser) was not there. my DH (also navy) showed proper ID and they would not except that. they said if i didnt bring in a copy of my DS dependant id card they would send me a bill for the meds we received that day.

when you go to the tricare office is when they will give you a book showing you all the doctors in your area. you can pick family practice, pediatrics, or i think you can even choose someone of base if you already found a doctor you like. i think with that they will drop your LO to standard and you will have to pay co pays.

MrsP052909 · October 2010

I just had my son in August and he was automatically enrolled into Tricare for us. A few days after I got out of the hospital I was sent to see someone in the hospital who gave us all of the pieces of paper showing that he was born and who his parents were. They also gave me the form to send in so we could get his birth certificate.

The hospital informed them of his birth for us.

Before I was discharged from the hospital they had already set up his appointments for his 1 week and 2 week well baby check ups. They assigned him a pedi. We were just told where to go and when to be there.

I gave birth at a hospital on post. Hope I've answered your questions!

DuckLover · October 2010

I didn't notify anyone that I had DS. But, I wasn't close by base and DS was transfered to childrens hospital. EVERYTHING for him was covered. It wasn't until he was almost 3 weeks old and DH was home from afghan on emergency leave that we came back to base and enrolled him. I have yet to get his real copy of his BC and that isn't an issue.

DS is still prime but he went out in town to a PCM that I chose and all that is covered too. Now that I'm back on base he will still go out in town and it will be covered.

ksnyder06 · October 2010

I'll keep an eye out for exactly how they do things here but at least now I know the basics of what I need to do.

Thanks for the info ladies

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