Getting out, military health issues - Air Force Times

DEERS

Access to military medical programs is controlled by the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System.

Active-duty members automatically enter DEERS when they join the service. Family members who qualify as dependents must be signed up. This includes newborns, who must be enrolled before claims for their care can be processed under Tricare.

Enrollment means completing a short form, available at personnel offices. Beneficiaries should keep addresses and other information current in their DEERS records. Sponsors are required by law to keep their addresses current in DEERS.

For address changes:

• Visit your local uniformed services ID card facility.

• Go to the Tricare Web site, www.tricare.mil/DEERS, or the Defense Manpower Data Center Web site, https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/address/index.jsp.

• Write to DSO, Attn: COA, 400 Gigling Road, Seaside, CA 93955-6771.

• Contact the DEERS Beneficiary Support Center, (800) 538-9552, fax (831) 655-8317, 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday.

Qualifying dependents under the DEERS system include:

• Spouses.

• Unmarried children under age 21.

• Unmarried children who are full-time students (may be covered until they turn 23 years old or when they are no longer full-time students, whichever comes first).

• Unmarried children age 21 and older who were born with severe physical or mental handicaps or developed such handicaps while they were dependents, and whose condition makes them rely on their parents for at least half their support.

• Parents or parents-in-law who live in a residence provided or maintained by their active-duty son, son-in-law, daughter or daughter-in-law and receive more than half of their financial support from the service member. They are not eligible for Tricare Prime, Standard, Extra or Tricare for Life. They can be seen only on a space-available basis at military hospitals or clinics or may enroll in Tricare Plus.

• Children placed in a service member’s legal custody by a recognized adoption agency or court. The children must be under age 21, or 23 if they are in school or incapable of self-support because of a condition that began while they were dependents.

• Widows or widowers of active-duty members or retirees who have not remarried.

• Certain former spouses of service members or retirees who have not remarried and were married for at least 20 years to the same member.

Contact: For DEERS enrollment status, (800) 538-9552; Alaska and Hawaii, (800) 527-5602; California, (800) 334-4162. Be sure to have the sponsor’s Social Security number on hand.