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| Tricare west |
TRICARE Western Region is part of the Department of Defense's Health Administration and provides health care services to eligible beneficiaries.
TRICARE West includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa (except Rock Island Arsenal area), Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas (Panhandle area only), Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
TRICARE Western Region Rankings in the US.
Health Care in the Army. It is a healthcare system developed to meet the unique healthcare needs of the military community. It includes uniformed service members, retirees, their families, and survivors.
TRICARE is the military's health care program. The TRICARE program provides health care to 9.7 million eligible beneficiaries worldwide, including active duty service members and their families. Military hospitals and clinics provide health care services to active duty personnel, their families, and retirees.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) supports the Department of Defense (DoD) in administering the TRICARE program. The TRICARE program is available to beneficiaries worldwide
Tricare West Prime
TRICARE Prime is a managed care option for beneficiaries covered by TRICARE. TRICARE Prime coordinates your medical care with your Primary Care Manager (PCM).
You will be assigned to a primary care manager who will coordinate your care and make sure you get the care you need and receive the best possible medical care.
Tricare Western Region States
The western part is a bit different than the rest of the country. We are one of ourselves. We have some of the largest states in the country with California and Texas, some of the smallest with the Pacific Islands, and some of the most populous states with Wyoming and Montana. We have a wide variety of climates, from hot deserts to snow-capped Rockies. Our people are diverse and spread over a large area. All these factors make the western region unique.
Tricare West Health Net of California
San Diego, CA – June 20, 2014 – Health Net Federal Services, a leading provider of federal health and dental benefits to active-duty service members, retirees, and their families, has been awarded a five-year contract to continue providing TRICARE Prime. Health Services in the Western Region. The contract is valued at approximately $1.35 billion and will be effective July 1, 2014.
How are Tricare West Prime and Tricare different?
The first thing to understand is that TriCare and TriCare Prime are two different things, both of which are managed by the Department of Defense. TRICARE is a health care program administered by the US Department of Defense.
It provides health coverage to active service members, retirees, and their families. TRICARE Prime is one of TRICARE's three health plans. TRICARE Prime is the managed care option, and TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra are fee-for-service plans.
TRICARE Prime provides access to a network of military and network providers. If a Prime provider is not available, access to a network of treatment providers for urgent care and urgent care needs.
The advantage of TRICARE Prime is that it is less expensive than TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra. But as a Prime member, you won't have the same access to health care providers as you would under TRICARE Standard or TRICARE Extra.
American military families living in the Tricare West
Many military families don't realize that they don't have to live in the states where their military base is located to use their military health plan. In fact, many military families live on the West Coast and may be taking advantage of the Western Regional State Agreement.
This agreement is intended for residents of the Western region of the United States. If you live in the Western Region, you're in good company.
Conclusion:
Moving to a new state is challenging. Here is some information to help with the military transition.
What experience do you have with military Tricare West and insurance?
Our experience is with Tricare Standard and Tricare Reserve Select. We used Tricare Standard when my husband was activated and Tricare Reserve Select when he was in the National Guard/Reserves on standard exercises.
For TRS, we paid $230 a month for insurance as a family. TRS works very like Tricare Standard, we had a 150 per person/300 family deductible and once that was met most of our costs were covered.
We were able to see any civilian doctor who used Tricare, which is a lot of them. As an example, I paid a $35 co-pay for the entire prenatal period and labor when my son was born.
Because I was high-risk, it involved many ultrasounds (weekly from week 30). It was all paid for. TRS was far superior to any insurance offered by our employers.
When the government changed the companies that took care of Tricare, there were some problems. It is actually divided into regional zones and these are handled by different contracted insurance companies. I've heard horror stories about how UHC handles Tricare in the East, but I've never had to deal with them because we've always been in the West zone. For many years, Tricare West was administered by TriWest, a company founded and dedicated to processing Tricare. They were amazing, had great customer service, and were prompt with both paperwork and payment processing. Then Congress decided to award the contract to UHC — there were lawsuits over some funny business with the bidding process — but TriWest dropped the fight. We saw the difference immediately. The paperwork was a disaster, the website didn't work well, and everything was delayed. It took forever to get authorization or someone on the phone.
My husband recently retired so we are in the "grey area" before he turns 58 and can get Tricare For Life. So until then, we will be on employer insurance.
It should be noted that I have never been to a medical facility on base. We have always used civilian doctors even when my husband was on active duty.
Is it true that if a doctor/clinic/hospital is on Medicaid, they have to accept Tricare West (the US military's "insurance")?
No, that's not true. Medicaid is a state program using federal funds.
TRICARE is a federal health care program for military members and dependents.
you meant to ask if Medicare providers have to accept TRICARE, Medicare is a federal program for the elderly and disabled.
The answer is still no. TRICARE is a separate program within the DoD administered by 2 vendors divided into East and West; Medicare is under HHS and managed by CMS. Providers may accept Medicare, but not TRICARE.
Why does an injured US soldier in Nigeria have to pay a local doctor for medical treatment?
The chart below shows current US military deployments, note that there are no West African deployments listed. Do you see any deployments listed for Nigeria? None are listed because no troops are stationed there or anywhere else in West Africa.
As mentioned, wounded US service personnel are treated by US military medical personnel at US military medical schools. Even in the United States, an injured service member is covered and treated free of charge under TRICARE, as are immediate family members.
People looking for money for any reason who claim to be in the US military are fake scammers looking for soft-hearted and soft-headed people to send them money.
Do deploy soldiers have to pay for medication?
US service members serving overseas have access to bank accounts, medical care, food, and everything else they need without having to pay for their help.
We don't even have to pay for the drugs, Tricare covers that. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to deceive you.
The only thing I sent from home was a brand of razors I liked, types of snacks I couldn't get overseas, magazines, books, and socks. A true soldier would ask for such things instead of money.
How good is the Tricare insurance offered to National Guard soldiers? How much is it for a family of four?
Tricare Reserve Select is excellent in most cases. Unless you have an employer-provided super platinum plan, TRS will likely provide better coverage ($300 annual family deductible, $1,058 annual catastrophic cap) for less (currently around $240 per month for a service member with dependents)
That being said, there are some things to be aware of. As a funded health plan, Tricare will not pay for abortion. Also, coverage of mental health lags somewhat behind coverage of physical health. Also, your experience with insurance beauty can vary depending on where you live in the country.
TRS is divided into Eastern and Western regions. The western region is managed by Health Net Federal Services, and the eastern by Humana Military. Health Net is the easiest insurance provider I've ever had to deal with, while Humana is one of the most difficult.
Why doesn't California (or other liberal states) install universal health care for its residents, including illegal immigrants, if they choose to do so? Nothing sells universal healthcare better than a success story.
Oh, another option: "If liberals believe higher taxes are good, why don't they pay more?" But less disingenuous.
In the US you; cannot actually have "universal care" at the state level.
First, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the VA and Tricare, are national-level programs. Implementing universal care in California while sending California tax dollars to Washington to subsidize health care in West Virginia is not a "success story."
Second, there is no meaningful friction when moving across national borders. Estimates vary, but roughly speaking, there are at least 200,000 medical bankruptcies per year, and the top estimate is more like 600,000 per year.
Implementing universal care in California so that West Virginia could send its recently bankrupt medical refugees out of the state instead of fixing its own system is not a "success story" either.
You can create "universal coverage" - Massachusetts pioneered this experiment in 2006, and it's still going despite federal attempts to kill Obamacare.
Will Claim A Storm Is Coming On SNL Hurt Trump's Polling Numbers?
Remember the kids in school who got a C and didn't care about the future? They voted for Trump and their views are set.
Remember the guys who joked about rape drugs or told racist and anti-Semitic jokes when talking about their rape escapades? They also voted for Trump.
People who claimed the Civil War was about states' rights, people who claim to be Christians but hate poor people and cheat on their wives.
People who send "seed" money to televangelists, people who think Republicans are helping people, and people who fought for the country and still want their VA and Tricare benefits cut, yes, they voted for Trump.
There are many more. Millions of them. People who would betray their country for $1000 or less, drunk drivers, meth heads, Benzo poppers, there is a long list of people who watch Fox News and claim to be good Americans.
Whenever they are interviewed, they think Trump is doing a great job. Most of them couldn't get the humor on the SNL set, so the storm won't have any effect.
And these people have always been with us.
My 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. West, said she would vote for Nixon again if she could. , she would hit the polls and vote for Tricky Dick again, despite the scandal.
These types of traitors will continue to vote against progress and criminal treason against the Constitution no matter what. That's what they do.
Oh, and about 20-40% of them are available for sample research each day.
The US is the only industrialized country that advocates universal health care for all. Why is that?
I'm going to throw out my idea of how to fix America's health care.
Use the current FICA (Medicare tax) so that every employer and employee pay into the system. Give each citizen X credits to either buy health insurance or pay their doctor or health system.
For this X amount, your insurance company or Dr/healthcare system will cover all fees related to the office, including lab and imaging, and physical therapy.
The federal government would provide umbrella insurance for hospitalization and medical conditions like cancer etc.
The government would ensure coverage of the regulations.
It would be like what they are doing with Tricare.
Employers would not provide health insurance but would pay into the scheme. They would also save costs by not paying for medical care for work-related injuries. They would still pay for disability and lost time due to work-related conditions, but their WC costs would be lower without medical insurance.
The federal government would end all health care programs, including Medicaid/Medicare, VA, Tricare, and all other programs that pay for health care, and put all funds used for those programs into the program.
This preserves the insurance industry and the private healthcare system. It would provide coverage to all citizens and seek to keep costs low.
While the government is not doing a great job with the VA; the Tricare system is not that bad. It is operated by contractual health insurance companies.
This prevents the government from actually running the program, only paying companies to run it.
I am retired from the US Navy and have Tricare Prime insurance. What if I have to sign up for a Medicare plan at age 65?
You can enroll in a Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plan where you can continue to use the VA Hospital for your medications.
Humana, Aetna, and United Healthcare all have good drug-free Medicare Advantage plans that are $0 premium, giving you many more hospitals to go to.
what state are you in? I have licensed in Pennsylvania; Ohio; West Virginia; Kentucky and New Jersey
What are the differences between single-payer, Medicare for all, and the public option? And why do some Democratic candidates want to cut private insurance altogether?
A single-payer system is a system where there is only one health program that is or functions as what as "insurance." The alternative is a Bismarck or multi-payer system, which is what we have now.
There are several insurance companies that one can get health insurance from, each with its own prices, costs, covered services, reimbursement rates, etc.
Medicare is a single-payer system with limited beneficiaries—those age 65 and older who are eligible and individuals receiving Social Security disability payments.
TRICARE is a hybrid—there are now two vendors that provide TRICARE for the Eastern and Western regions—and is available to active duty military and their families, active reserve military and their families, and retired military and their families.
Medicare for All is a proposal to increase the beneficiary pool to include everyone. It would replace the multi-payer system we have now with a single-payer system, and it would pretty much put private insurers out of business.
If Medicare for All looks like traditional Medicare today, then I assume that private insurance companies provide "Medicare Supplements" like today or some type of supplemental private insurance that would supplement what Medicare provides and provide services that Medicare does not provide.
A public option is a general term for an as-yet-undefined single-payer or multi-payer system that would be financed as a whole and of which the government would be a part.
Unless and until we move to a tax-funded, single-payer system that mirrors something like Canada's Medicare system, there will be a market for supplemental policies provided by private insurance companies to pick up where Medicare reimbursement ends.
The problem with the system we have today is that each health insurance provider—and employers sponsoring the insurance—is free to pick and choose what to cover (after considering mandatory insurance, which can vary by state) and how to cover it.
They also determine gross premiums (up to $20,000/year on average for family coverage) and how much the employee will pay. Individual insurance policies outside of the ACA are difficult to get and expensive.
Outside of the ACA, policies may deny coverage or drop coverage based on pre-existing conditions or exclude pre-existing conditions from coverage. diabetes? Cancer? Heart conditions? You'd be out of luck. And - get coverage through your employer? Lose your job, lose your coverage.
Change jobs and your coverage changes, costs change, and providers may have to change because providers are free to choose which insurance companies to accept based on—guess what—reimbursement rates.
That's another benefit of single-payer – providers pretty much have to accept it because it's the only provider of insurance coverage.
Hindsight may be 20/20. Have you ever faced a decision that you knew could affect the rest of your life? Did you make the right decision?
At 18 I planned to join the US Air Force… both my father and stepdad were there. When I got to the USAF recruiter's office, he was gone. I knew the Navy recruiter because my girlfriend sat for his son.
I stopped by to say hello and get a cup of coffee. I left 1 1/2 hours later in the Navy. I wanted to get out of the slower lower Delaware and see the world. I did it all. I have been to the east in Pakistan, to the west in Thailand, to the north in Nova Scotia, and to the south in Antarctica (where I spent 13 months).
I have sailed 8 oceans on 5 ships, stationed in 3 countries, and visited 27 countries (some more than once). I have had free medical care (Tricare for Life) along with Medicare since I left the Navy in 1985. In 2016, I had $164,000 in cancer treatment and never paid a cent, except for a few drugs that cost me as little as $2 and as much as $11.
I also get a nice pension from the Navy. With my experience and training in the Navy, I have had 3 long-term jobs (2 with the same equipment assigned to two different projects) and now receive a union pension and shipyard pension, and social security.
Add that to my wife's Social Security and we're sitting pretty. In the late spring of 2017, we went on a 2-month road trip across Oregon to Virginia stopping in 3 states on the way and back.
At the end of the summer of that year, we flew to Thailand for 10 days. The only thing we were charged for was gas on the cross-country road and we paid for it shortly after we got home.
My wife and I have lived in both countries for the past 13 years. We are US citizens and retired. In 1999 I bought a beautiful plot of land on which I wanted to build a house in retirement. When we retired in 2008 my wife and I moved to NZ in early December.
I arranged for a builder and it was done the following year when we moved in. Our plan was to live about 5 months of the year in NZ and the rest in the US. We do gardening in both places since we have 2 summers.
Our visas stipulate that we cannot stay more than 6 months in any year. We had to miss out last year due to the pandemic, but we hope that by November this year, the New Zealand government will open the country to tourists who have been vaccinated and tested negative for Covid before arrival.
We are 70 years old and healthy. We have Medicare and Tricare so most of our medical needs are taken care of while in the US. We pay for all minor medical needs in New Zealand out of our own pocket. If either of us had a major health problem, we would have to move back to the US.
Now to answer the question. We enjoy the culture and climate of our American home in the Puget Sound area of Washington.
We live in a small town where there is not much crime. Most of our relatives live in Washington and northern Idaho, so when we are in the US we get to see the children and grandchildren. If we want to attend sporting events or the opera, we hop on the light rail and we're in Seattle in 45 minutes.
Sometimes we vacation in one of the many national parks in the states west of the Mississippi River.
We are liberal and thankful that the Trump era appears to be finally over. Our country still has to deal with issues of race, health care for working Americans, the proliferation of weapons, assault weapons, etc.
We need to make college education more affordable for many people. Compared to NZ, it is cheaper to live in the US, except for living in many of our big cities.
We love the beautiful area where we live in NZ and have enjoyed traveling there from time to time to many scenic and diverse areas. Kiwi people are very friendly and accepting of us. We often don't lock the door to our house unless we are away for a day or more.
The food is usually much healthier than in the US. Sauvignon blanc wine is our favorite in NZ and cabernet sauvignon in the US. Several American guests visited us on holiday in New Zealand. I must say that we enjoy life in both countries. There are positives and negatives to both.
I currently pay over $13k a year for my health insurance. How much more do people think I should pay for universal health care?
And all this without just talking about the supply-side savings that come from hospitals being able to do better medical supply deals, there was a great response years ago from the UK supply manager that showed how UK hospitals were saving money on manufacturing orders.
And because they weren't interested in making a profit, they could reduce the same cost of medical services, but the main problem was that they could order known quantities, in short, because people could get preventive care, they could do statistical analysis of how many things to order, by knowing how many items to order, they could make deals with manufacturers.
All of this is moot because West Wing put it this way: “When you ask me if I'd rather pay premium or tax, my only answer is whichever is cheaper, I know that 25% of my salary goes to cover my wife and I and we have to pay out of pocket for any preventative medical expenses.
That means physical therapy, cancer screenings, etc., things that would limit both our personal expenses and medical expenses if caught earlier, we have a $1500 deductible, which means anything less than 1500 and we pay assuming the doctor who sees us is in the network.
The best tool we get is zip code, but no two practitioners in the same location may be in the network, so someone on both ends now we have paid ourselves double checking that if we ever go to the hospital we can't afford to go anyway.
I was paying about 75 percent less of my pay for tricar coverage when I was in the military, and if I sneezed I could go in, at least see a PA, get a prescription, and get out without costing me a dime.
Now people will say "that's military" but the military health program is not really that different from that of any government employee or defense contractor. Now, it may shock some to learn that senators and congressmen are government employees.
Amazing I know right? So the real question is how do people who have a brilliant government provide health insurance and care at a very low cost when they tell us how terrible the program is and how we are better off with private care.
As with all conservative topics, there is also a forced binary opposition: stricter gun registration laws mean guns or no guns, same with health care means universal health care the end of all private health care, although, in reality.
Most countries have some form. universal health care also has private insurance that extends or provides really expensive care and is attached to universal health care, at this point private insurance is cheaper because the insurance provided cover most high-frequency events, and while not actually working, for simplification private insurance becomes like an HSA and is optional.
However, this is all moot because the West Wing has already summed it up: "If you ask me I'd rather have the premium or the tax, my only question is which is more expensive" and there's no reason to think universal basic coverage is more expensive because we know numbers.
This is nothing new, mind you, most of the world moved to some kind of universal coverage back before WWII. Actually, medicare / Medicaid was supposed to be more than it was now when it was thought of, but the Hoover conservatives screamed that it was socialism and were more in favor of their same approach.
keep in mind that this is the result of conservative policies, which like liberal policies haven't changed much since FDR, conservative policies, even rhetoric, haven't changed much since Hoover. I'm reminding you how America looks from the point of view of Hoover's policies:
(Source of article: www.quora.com)
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