Humana Government Business Inc. has released a “welcome” statement to providers after being awarded the contract for the East region of TRICARE, the insurance program serving active duty and retired military personnel and their families.
TRICARE announced in July 2016 that it would consolidate its North and South Regions into a single East Region, with its preexisting West Region staying the same. (TRICARE’s “overseas” region for beneficiaries stationed outside the United States remains the same, as well.)
TRICARE awarded the new East region contract to Humana Government Business Inc., and the West region contract will go from UnitedHealthcare to Health Net Federal Services LLC, which had previously been running the soon-to-be-phased-out North region.
However, while TRICARE has awarded the new regional contracts, the shift to the new regions will take some time, with TRICARE advising that it has allocated a nine-month transition period for the shift to the new regions.
For its region, Humana said in its welcoming statement to providers that the contract will serve approximately 6 million beneficiaries living in the 30-state region, and is slated to begin serving the new region in October.
“Growing this provider network will ensure and expand access to quality healthcare to improve the overall well-being for TRICARE beneficiaries,” Humana noted in the statement.
Providers interested in serving TRICARE East must submit an inquiry at http://bit.ly/2jlj0H4. If a provider is already a current TRICARE provider and holds a contract with Humana Government Business/Humana Military, it does not need to submit an inquiry. That provider’s network agreement will be transitioned to the new TRICARE East Region.
“Current contracted providers may want to take this opportunity to discuss contract renegotiation,” the American Association for Homecare noted in an update to its members.