Medicaid and TRICARE: Third-Party Liability Coordination

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. Armed Forces military personnel, retirees, and dependents. By law, Medicaid is the payer of last resort and most other sources of coverage, including TRICARE, must pay claims under their policies before Medicaid is liable. However, efforts to coordinate benefits between the two programs have been constrained by a number of conflicting policies. The presentation describes the problems resulting from these conflicts and identifies potential opportunities to improve coordination of benefits between the two programs and preserve Medicaid’s role as the payer of last resort.