A growing number of medical professionals are signing up to accept TRICARE, the healthcare plan for members of the uniformed services, retirees and their families, according to the Department of Defense.
The Department of Defense (DoD) Survey of Civilian Physician Acceptance of TRICARE Standard shows that in Fiscal Year 2007, almost 93 percent of responding physicians in 53 areas were aware of the TRICARE program. Almost 85 percent of those physicians accepted new TRICARE Standard patients.
The DoD initiated a campaign to increase the number of providers accepting TRICARE patients several years ago. Recently, the state of Colorado’s TRICARE leadership announced the number of providers in the state increased from 4,830 to more than 7,920. Hawaii’s leadership announced the number of providers in the state increased from 2,885 to close to 4,000. At the same time, Idaho’s number of providers in the state increased from 2,190 to more than 3,820 and Utah’s number of providers increased from 2,200 to more than 3,600.
The DoD says the most impressive numbers thus far come from South Dakota, where the number of providers in the state increased from 900 to more than 3,000.
Approximately 325,000 providers across the United States are in the TRICARE network, with over 1 million providers accepting TRICARE beneficiaries. TRICARE relies heavily on civilian providers to supplement the healthcare provided by military treatment facilities. More than 2 million TRICARE beneficiaries use TRICARE Standard, the fee-for-service option that allows patients to see any TRICARE authorized provider.
[See also: Military healthcare options now include MinuteClinics in southern states.]
The TRICARE Management Activity administers the worldwide healthcare plan for 9.6 million eligible beneficiaries of the uniformed services, retirees and their families.