Q. I am a military retiree and current federal employee. I am one of the 170,000 military retirees in the country who will lose Tricare Prime coverage Oct. 1 and be converted to Tricare Standard. Tricare Standard will not give me the coverage my family needs. Will this qualify for a qualifying life event so I can sign up for a Federal Employees Health Benefits plan?
A. No. According to the Office of Personnel Management, “FEHB regulations (5 CFR 890.301(i)) permit an employee to enroll in FEHB when the employee or an eligible family member loses coverage under another group health benefits plan. We consider an employee’s conversion from TRICARE Prime to TRICARE Standard as a change from one type of TRICARE to another, but not a loss of coverage.”
