Tricare dental opens to overseas retirees

[thedrifter]

Tricare dental opens to overseas retirees
By Kelly Kennedy - kellykennedy@militarytimes.com
Posted : May 21, 2007

The Tricare Retiree Dental Program is being opened to military retirees living in all overseas locations.

However, retirees outside the current coverage areas — the U.S., its territories and Canada — will have to pay premiums for those services, as all retirees do.

Monthly premiums in the U.S. generally run between $30 and $50 for an individual, $60 to $90 for a family of two, and $100 to $155 for a family of three or more, depending on where the retiree is located. Delta Dental organizes the TRDP into five regions, with premiums based on the average cost of living in each region.

Information on how TRDP premiums will be set overseas was not available.

Federal law has never specifically restricted the geographic scope of the Tricare Retiree Dental Program, run under contract by Delta Dental of California, but until now it has served retirees living only in the U.S., Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Defense Department decided to expand the program to overseas areas based on requests from retirees and their families who live abroad.

The change would make about 100,000 retirees and family members who live abroad eligible for the TRDP, according to a notice published in the April 16 Federal Register.

“Expanding the geographic scope of the program will ensure that all Tricare-eligible retirees are eligible for the same dental benefits, regardless of their location,” defense officials said in the Federal Register notice.

Officials said expanding the TRDP overseas will not increase the government’s costs for the program, because it is maintained “entirely by enrollees through premium payments.”

Enrollees also pay for dental costs in excess of the TRDP coverage limits, and the contractor is solely responsible for program costs in excess of annual premium payments.

Tricare spokeswoman Bonnie Powell said details are being worked out about when the expanded service will become available.

For more about the Tricare Retiree Dental Program, visit www.trdp.org/.

Ellie