July 21, 2017 TRICARE Expands Treatment Options for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders TRICARE expanded mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) services, adding intensive outpatient programs and expanding options for opioid treatment. In addition to other improvements, this expansion improves access to care and increases opportunities for mental health and SUD treatment. It
July 7, 2017 TRICARE Online (TOL) patient portal currently down The TRICARE Online (TOL) patient portal is currently down. On July 5, a computer hardware failure caused an outage in the TRICARE Online patient portal. Engineers are on site in San Antonio, assessing the problem and developing a solution to return TRICARE Online to service as quickly as
July 5, 2017 Avoid Heart Disease: Know Your Blood Pressure, Cholesterol You wake up one morning and feel pressure in your chest and then a sharp pain. Are you having a heart attack? You call 911 just to be safe. How did this happen or what you could have done to prevent it? Regular heart, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings can help you stay healthy. TRICARE
June 23, 2017 Men: Get Screened for Cancer Risk Your doctor calls to give you your test results. Is it cancer? You are worried because cancer runs in your family. Luckily the tests come back clear. Although there’s no magic potion to prevent all cancers, you may be able to reduce your cancer risk by participating in recommended cancer
May 25, 2017 Moving? Toss Unwanted or Expired Medications Appropriately Many service members and their families are gearing up to move this summer as peak moving season runs May through August each year. As you organize your house and belongings to prepare for your move, one area of your home you shouldn’t overlook is your medicine cabinet. Now is the perfect time to
May 19, 2017 Protecting your Child from Lead and Other Household Poisoning The word poison suggests a bubbling vial marked with skull and crossbones. However, poisonings can result from misuse of common household products or even from our home itself in the form of lead. Poisoning can happen all at once or gradually over time. TRICARE covers children’s blood lead testing
May 4, 2017 TRICARE Changes to Nexium Coverage Starting June 28, the drug Nexium will no longer be a TRICARE preferred, or formulary, drug. This means it will no longer be available in military pharmacies, and you will pay more if you get it through TRICARE Pharmacy Home Delivery or a retail network pharmacy. Nexium is a brand name prescription
April 28, 2017 TRICARE: Do You Need Emergency or Urgent Care? When you’re sick or in pain, it can be hard to determine the level of care you need. If a child or other family member needs care, the anxiety can be even greater. In those moments, you need to decide whether to go to an emergency room, an urgent care center, or to schedule an appointment with your
April 27, 2017 TRICARE: Celebrating Our Military Kids Although April is the Month of the Military Child, recognizing our military’s youngest heroes is a year-round effort. Nearly two million U.S. military children serve our country as part of service members’ families. For these children, TRICARE offers benefits for their well-being, such as well-child
April 4, 2017 Improvements to the TRICARE Dental Program Beginning on May 1, 2017, United Concordia Companies, Inc. (United Concordia) will manage the TRICARE Dental Program (TDP). Beneficiaries don’t need to take any actions to continue their coverage.The TDP is a voluntary dental benefit for eligible active duty family members, National Guard and
March 21, 2017 TRICARE Can Offer Relief for Allergy Sufferers Whether it is seasonal or a reaction to a specific food, allergies can be bothersome or dangerous. With seasonal allergies, depending on where you live, allergies can begin to affect you as early as February. If you suffer from food or other allergies, the effects can be felt year-round. The key
March 15, 2017 Don’t Get Caught Out in the Cold The winter season is coming to an end, but end of season storms can still be dangerous. Protect yourself and your family from cold weather dangers.Snow, sleet and high winds can knock out heat, power and communication services to your home or office. When you know a storm is coming, prepare for
March 1, 2017 Preventing Traumatic Brain Injury in Your Child When it comes to traumatic brain injury (TBI), you can’t have too much information. Traumatic brain injuries affect millions of Americans each year, and each TBI experience is unique. Be sure to know the signs and symptoms of TBI as well as how you can prevent yourself and your loved ones from
Jan. 3, 2017 What You Need to Know About Getting Speech Therapy Some children and adults have trouble saying certain sounds or words. Not only will speech and language disorders—such as articulation disorders, fluency disorders, voice disorders and language disorders—make it difficult to speak clearly, other conditions such as hearing impairments, cleft or lip
Dec. 20, 2016 Managing Mental Health over the Holidays Holidays are a time when families come together to eat good food and spend quality time. They also can be a time of stress whether you are worried about having enough money, hosting the largest family get-together of the year, or traveling long distances.According to the Centers for Disease Control
Dec. 16, 2016 Protect Your Skin in the Colder Months It’s cold outside and you might think that sun protection is for the summer. Even though the temperature is cooler, the sun is still powerful, so continue to wear sunscreen with sun protective factor (SPF) of at least 15 with both UVA and UVB protection every day.Though you may want that sun-kissed
Dec. 6, 2016 TRICARE Continues to Expand Coverage TRICARE constantly seeks to improve health care coverage. Effective early December, we will expand TRICARE coverage to include the care and treatment of beneficiaries requiring an auditory osseointegrated implant (AOI) to non-active duty family members, and we will also cover the services and
Nov. 25, 2016 TRICARE and the Affordable Care Act With the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, TRICARE beneficiaries have had questions about how it will affect them. The ACA and TRICARE are very different, governed by two different pieces of legislation so changes in one have no effect on the other. The
Nov. 22, 2016 Protect Your Personal Information Don’t wait for fraud against TRICARE beneficiaries to be in the news. Always protect your personal information! Whether you’re active duty or retired, don’t share your uniformed service identification card, or personal or family information with someone you don’t know. Protecting your personal
Nov. 16, 2016 Get Ready for the Great American Smokeout Smokers across the country are preparing for the third Thursday in November, when they will make more time to breathe easy by quitting smoking or at least making a plan. This year’s Great American Smokeout will be on November 17, 2016. This event challenges smokers to quit for just 24 hours, in the