I thought this announcement that I received this morning about UHC and Tricare was interesting and wanted to share.
UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services Awarded TRICARE West Region Contract
On March 16, 2012, the United States Department of Defense announced the award of the TRICARE T3 Managed Care Support Contract for the TRICARE West Region to UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services (UMVS) a UnitedHealthcare company. We are honored to have been chosen and grateful for the opportunity to provide care and service to the 2.9 million TRICARE beneficiaries residing in the 21 states that make up the TRICARE West Region, including: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa (excluding the Rock Island Arsenal area), Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas (the southwestern corner including El Paso), Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
What is TRICARE?
The Department of Defense provides health care benefits to more than nine million active duty military members, retired service members and
their families; the benefit program is referred to as TRICARE.
Much of the TRICARE program’s health care is provided directly in military hospitals and clinics. This “direct care” is augmented by care purchased
from private sector providers. Most “purchased care” is organized and serviced through three regional managed care support contractors
(MCSCs). Each of the three MCSCs, HealthNet Federal Services (north region),Humana (south region) and UMVS (west region), manages a
network of providers in their contracted TRICARE region and cover approximately one third of the 9.2 million beneficiaries.
Under the terms of the contract, UMVS will also be responsible for customer service, claims processing, management support including cost
trend risk management, fraud and abuse detection, and quality management services.
For claims processing, UMVS will be partnering with PGBA, a company based in South Carolina and a current TRICARE claims processor for both the TRICARE North and South regions. The award is a five-year contract scheduled to begin April 1, 2013 with a ten-month period established to transition the contract to UMVS. It is during this period that provider contracting efforts will begin.
Becoming a TRICARE Provider
UMVS is committed to providing a network that is well-managed, stable, and of high-quality. The network will focus on promoting access, quality, and beneficiary satisfaction. We encourage you to visit tricare.mil to familiarize yourself with the TRICARE program. Additionally, the UMVS TRICARE Provider Handbook will soon be available at UnitedHealthcareOnline.com . We are eager to talk with providers interested in serving TRICARE beneficiaries. Over the next few months, our Provider Relations staff will begin to contact you regarding this process.
Current TRICARE Providers
If you are currently a TRICARE provider serving beneficiaries in the TRICARE West Region, you will need to re-contract with UMVS in order to
continue serving military patients. We will be contacting provider offices by telephone and mail with information on how to contract with UMVS
and continue participating in the TRICARE program.
While the transition in managed care support contractors from TriWest to UMVS will necessitate some changes in process, such as new toll-free
numbers and claims filing addresses, we will make every effort to ensure that you will not experience any disruption in the administration of the
TRICARE Program. The UMVS TRICARE Provider Handbook will soon be available at UnitedHealthcareOnline.com for your review as part of your contracting process with UMVS.
Your service to TRICARE beneficiaries is extremely valuable. We are committed to contracting with the current TRICARE network and continuing the administration of the Department of Defense’s TRICARE program in the usual way to minimize disruption to you and beneficiaries. We look forward to working with you to continue supporting our military and their families.