Anyone have experience with adoption and Tricare?

militarywife2b · December 2011

Hello ladies

I was wondering if anyone had experience with adopting an infant and using Tricare. We are adopting a baby due in May and Im wondering if the baby would be elgible to use Tricare Standard for their inital health screeings. I know we cannot add the baby until we get a birth certificate for Prime. TIA

LemonLover33 · December 2011

Have you asked your local TRICARE office?

https://www.tricare.mil/mybenefit/ProfileFilter.do;jsessionid=T7cQJ4wjW32PCnCK2Xpzlk3lC2xbY2QyZZ7g15fJzVzPLclhFcqp!-903925194?puri=/home/overview/Eligibility/DEERS/Children

militarywife2b · December 2011

Yes and Ive called Deers as well they could not answer the question

LemonLover33 · December 2011

Why can't you just do the check ups on prime then switch? They are covered under prime for 60 days.

SweetieBelle04 · December 2011

We adopted DD 7 months ago. Everything was covered on Prime from birth. We did not have to have a SSAN to put her on Prime (I'm sure Standard would be the same). The rules for TriCare can be found in the handbook online or by talking to someone, but basically we just had to go to the local DEERS office with our temporary custody order after DD was placed. We just finalized this week, so when we get the SSAN we'll update her record. It was honestly a lot harder to get me covered under DH when I left active duty than it was to get DD covered. People adopt all the time, and it's a pretty standard procedure. I hope everything goes well for you!

Sarah_lily · December 2011

SweetieBelle04:
We adopted DD 7 months ago. Everything was covered on Prime from birth. We did not have to have a SSAN to put her on Prime (I'm sure Standard would be the same). The rules for TriCare can be found in the handbook online or by talking to someone, but basically we just had to go to the local DEERS office with our temporary custody order after DD was placed. We just finalized this week, so when we get the SSAN we'll update her record. It was honestly a lot harder to get me covered under DH when I left active duty than it was to get DD covered. People adopt all the time, and it's a pretty standard procedure. I hope everything goes well for you!

Just jumping in to say I'm encouraged by this repsonse. We are in the process of adopting from South Korea and I was wondering how things would play out with enrolling our son in DEERS.

SweetieBelle04 · December 2011

Sarah_lily:

Just jumping in to say I'm encouraged by this repsonse. We are in the process of adopting from South Korea and I was wondering how things would play out with enrolling our son in DEERS.

Congratulations on your adoption! I know that there are several differences in adopting internationally vs domestically (what we did). My guess is that it will be really easy for you. We only had temporary custody of DD until we finalized last week, but I think your adoption will be final when your son is placed with you, right? You should just need to take your adoption decree to the DEERS office and sign him up. It's crazy how much easier it is than adding a spouse. Also, I think adopted children are covered retroactively at placement, so if they need care before you get them enrolled (but after they are placed with you) it will still be covered. I hope everything goes smoothly and you bring your son home soon!

Sarah_lily · December 2011

SweetieBelle04:
Sarah_lily:

Just jumping in to say I'm encouraged by this repsonse. We are in the process of adopting from South Korea and I was wondering how things would play out with enrolling our son in DEERS.

Congratulations on your adoption! I know that there are several differences in adopting internationally vs domestically (what we did). My guess is that it will be really easy for you. We only had temporary custody of DD until we finalized last week, but I think your adoption will be final when your son is placed with you, right? You should just need to take your adoption decree to the DEERS office and sign him up. It's crazy how much easier it is than adding a spouse. Also, I think adopted children are covered retroactively at placement, so if they need care before you get them enrolled (but after they are placed with you) it will still be covered. I hope everything goes smoothly and you bring your son home soon!

Thanks for the congratulations. We're very excited...but in for a looong wait. Our son likely won't come home for about a year (Korean government). Korea is in the process of revising their adoption laws, but at this point, we won't finalize until 6-8 months after we bring our son home. So, hopefully that won't be problematic with DEERS. We're obviously not the first Army family to adopt from Korea, so I'm sure it will all work out eventually .Thanks for all the great info. I appreciate it.

militarywife2b · December 2011

SweetieBelle04:
We adopted DD 7 months ago. Everything was covered on Prime from birth. We did not have to have a SSAN to put her on Prime (I'm sure Standard would be the same). The rules for TriCare can be found in the handbook online or by talking to someone, but basically we just had to go to the local DEERS office with our temporary custody order after DD was placed. We just finalized this week, so when we get the SSAN we'll update her record. It was honestly a lot harder to get me covered under DH when I left active duty than it was to get DD covered. People adopt all the time, and it's a pretty standard procedure. I hope everything goes well for you!

Thank you. Its so amazing that NO ONE in the DEERS office could answer this question. I was given the number to the central personnel office who directed me to a voice message line.

militarywife2b · December 2011

Sarah_lily:

SweetieBelle04:
We adopted DD 7 months ago. Everything was covered on Prime from birth. We did not have to have a SSAN to put her on Prime (I'm sure Standard would be the same). The rules for TriCare can be found in the handbook online or by talking to someone, but basically we just had to go to the local DEERS office with our temporary custody order after DD was placed. We just finalized this week, so when we get the SSAN we'll update her record. It was honestly a lot harder to get me covered under DH when I left active duty than it was to get DD covered. People adopt all the time, and it's a pretty standard procedure. I hope everything goes well for you!

Just jumping in to say I'm encouraged by this repsonse. We are in the process of adopting from South Korea and I was wondering how things would play out with enrolling our son in DEERS.

Congrats on your adoption as well.

ufsandra85 · December 2011

thread jacking. we are starting to look into adoption and I was wondering how much it has cost you all? I see things that say 100k, 40k, 20k. We would like a baby and dont care about race. I know it varies if you do international, private etc. but just about how much you all spent

SweetieBelle04 · December 2011

ufsandra85:
thread jacking. we are starting to look into adoption and I was wondering how much it has cost you all? I see things that say 100k, 40k, 20k. We would like a baby and dont care about race. I know it varies if you do international, private etc. but just about how much you all spent

You are absolutely right that the cost varies. You should go over to the adoption board. Everyone there is super helpful, and there is a great FAQ link at the top. As far as statistics go, check out Adoptive Families magazine. They do an annual wrap-up that shows almost every imaginable statictis for adoptions. I get the magazine, but I bet you can find the info on their website. It has info about cost, wait times, and a lot of other cool stuff.

To answer your question, we spent in the ballpark of 30k-40k. I purposefully haven't added it all up! In our situation, we had the money saved, and a short wait time was worth a lot of money for us (deployment/pending PCS gave us a small window). You can adopt for much, much less, or you can end up spending more than we did. It's up to you, though. Deciding between international vs domestic adoption should be based on a lot of other factors besides cost, so try to make that decision before you look too closely at the budget. Also, keep in mind that there are tons of creative ways to pay for adoption. Some people take out loans, borrow from family, fundraise, etc. If you want to adopt and cost is your only drawback, you CAN make it work and adopt. Good luck!

militarywife2b · January 2012

ufsandra85:
thread jacking. we are starting to look into adoption and I was wondering how much it has cost you all? I see things that say 100k, 40k, 20k. We would like a baby and dont care about race. I know it varies if you do international, private etc. but just about how much you all spent

Sorry for the delay in answering. We are a little different since this is a private adoption (there are no agencies involved). So the cost to us is alot lower we are looking at maybe 2 to 3,000.00 if that.

mrskinsler04 · January 2012

I just wanted to add that it takes FOREVER to get the birthcertifate. Ours took the full 6 months on both of them. And they will not forward them to a new address.

Anyone have experience with adoption and Tricare?

Re: Anyone have experience with adoption and Tricare?

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