The Military Health System and the TRICARE program are undergoing the most extensive and complex changes in decades. Most of these changes were swept in through the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act and have affected almost every facet of the military's health care delivery system. With changes of this magnitude, it's not surprising there has been confusion for military beneficiaries.

MOAA sees and hears from the beneficiary community the angst and frustration resulting from many of these changes. Our recent Facebook Live Town Hall captured the groundswell of dissatisfaction, as we addressed these issues with the director of the TRICARE Health Program. View the whole interview and join in the conversation.

Many of the structural changes to the TRICARE program have been compounded with the change in TRICARE's purchased care contractors in the West and East regions. Despite extensive preparation by both Humana and Health Net, they experienced big challenges early on and have reported to MOAA they are working hard to make adjustments. But they will have to prove it to beneficiaries, many of whom have been surprised to see their TRICARE copayments have increased.

MOAA and others in the beneficiary community are applying pressure on the Defense Health Agency (DHA) to produce improvements and quickly. In a briefing with TRICARE officials, accompanied by Health Net and Humana, they acknowledged key issues most affecting beneficiary experience and issues that require rapid improvement. MOAA has been targeting the following areas Humana and Health Net currently are addressing. They include:

• Customer service: Initial call volumes quickly exceeded call center capacities. Additionally, training of new center associates required to learn about the program and its changes have slowed calls.
• Referrals and authorizations: These have accumulated an immediate backlog, which required a waiver by the DHA to extend into April (West Region).
• Adequate provider networks: This continues to be a problem mainly in areas outside of major military installations and with the new TRICARE Select option.
• Claims processing: There have been delays in payments to providers, resulting in some beneficiaries covering the costs. Additionally, accuracy of beneficiary claims statements have been an issue.
• Technology and data support: Issues have occurred across a variety of claims, enrollment platforms, and functions, resulting in decreased performance capabilities and accuracy.
• Enrollment: Beneficiaries are highly encouraged to update their electronic transfer payments, for example, by credit card to ensure their TRICARE Prime enrollment is up-to-date. It is recommended beneficiaries review recent statements to verify their enrollment transaction went through.

These disruptions do not in any way serve to enhance the beneficiaries' experience with their TRICARE health benefit. MOAA continues to work closely with TRICARE program officials, and with those at Health Net and Humana, to identify and rectify these and many other issues that are brought to our attention by our membership.