Tricare Open Season begins on Nov. 11 and a town hall was held in the Tinker Event Center on Nov. 5 to answer questions about enrolling, as well as recent changes being made to the Air Force medical system.
Open Season is a time for all eligible non-active duty service members to enroll in or change their Tricare Prime or Tricare Select health care plans by visiting milConnect. Through Dec. 9, eligible members can also sign up for dental and vision coverage under FEDVIP.
Retirees, retiree family members and active duty family members also have a limited opportunity to enroll with a Primary Care Manager off base while keeping Prime benefits. This can be done by visiting Patient Administration or airforcemedicine.af.mil.
“This year, across the three services, we had the biggest medical reform in the Air Force probably in the last 30 years,” said Col. Jennifer Trinkle, 72nd Medical Group commander. “It came about from a congressional mandate that we increase standardization across the board with the Army, Navy and Air Force on how we deliver care.”
For patients, this means any Army, Air Force or Navy health care facility they walk into will be exactly the same. This mandate also dictates that the Defense Health Agency provide the oversight of budgetary and policy control for health care benefits, pharmacy, the laboratory and radiology.
Trinkle said that if you walk into the clinic on base you’ll notice a few changes. One of these changes is the re-designation of the second floor as the Operational Medical Readiness Squadron to handle all active duty care.
“By doing this the Air Force is streamlining the care that we’re giving to our active duty members,” Trinkle said. “One of our biggest jobs on this base is to make sure every Airman is ready to walk out that door and go to war so by doing this and realigning our personnel in clinic we’re streamlining that care.”
The first floor has also been re-designated as the Health Care Operations Squadron and will now deal with all Benefit Care. This also means that the Family Health Clinic on the first floor will now only see dependents and retirees.
Another change through DHA mandates that the clinic cannot be closed for more than three consecutive days.
“Under DHA we’ll have an acute care clinic for the patients that are enrolled in our facility. On Family Days we will be open from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and you can book an appointment by calling the Nurse Advice Line,” Trinkle said.
DHA also launched Tricare online, tricareonline.com, a website where patients can make appointments, refill prescriptions, contact the Nurse Advice Line, review health records and send secure messages to their primary care team.
In order to continue to provide transparency and promote patient engagement, Tricare town halls will continue to be held quarterly. A Coffee with the Commander event will also be held once a month in the lobby of the Med Group. During this time, Col. Trinkle and members of her staff will be available to answer any questions beneficiaries may have. The next Coffee with the Commander will be held 9:30-11 a.m. on Nov. 22.