TRICARE Contractor Changes for 2018

On September 11, 2017, I published an article titled” TRICARE Changes Coming in 2018” where I discussed the 3 current TRICARE regions will be consolidated to 2. TRICARE North and TRICARE South will combine to form TRICARE East and TRICARE West will remain essentially unchanged. In addition, each of the 2 regions will have new regional contractors that providers of therapy services will have to enroll with in order to treat TRICARE patients on and after January 1, 2018 with the exception of if your current contract is with Humana Military.

The TRICARE West Region includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa (except the Rock Island Arsenal area), Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri (except the St. Louis area), Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas (areas of Western Texas only), Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. On January 1, 2018, current South Region beneficiaries in the Lubbock and Amarillo, TX areas are moving into the TRICARE West Region.

The TRICARE East Region includes the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa (Rock Island Arsenal area only), Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri (St. Louis area only), New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas (excluding the El Paso area), Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The new TRICARE West Contractor will be