Coordination of Benefits with TRICARE

This presentation follows up on earlier work focusing on Medicaid third-party liability policy and interactions between Medicaid and the TRICARE program, the Department of Defense health benefits program for U.S. military personnel, retirees, and dependents. Efforts to coordinate benefits between Medicaid and TRICARE have been constrained by a number of conflicting policies. The presentation describes the problems resulting from these conflicts and provides recommendations aimed at improving coordination of benefits between the two programs. The Commission approved recommendations to reinstate data sharing between the two programs and align TRICARE policies with those applied to other insurers in order to preserve Medicaid’s role as the payer of last resort.