Q. Can U.S. Family Health Plan enrollees stay in that plan instead of going on Medicare at age 65? If so, why is this advantage available to USFHP members but not other Tricare Prime users?

A. The answer to your first question is relatively straightforward. The answer to your second question swiftly leads into the somewhat tangled history of the USFHP.

First: Anyone enrolled before Oct. 1, 2012, in one of the six U.S. Family Health Plan programs offered in specific geographic areas around the nation may stick with those plans indefinitely after age 65 without enrolling in Medicare.

However, beneficiaries 65 and older are advised to enroll in Medicare Parts A and B to ensure no break in coverage should they decide to leave the USFHP or move to an area not served by the program.

Also, USFHP beneficiaries who enrolled before Oct. 1, 2012, and stay in that program after age 65 may face the Medicare Part B late enrollment penalty if they don't enroll in Part B when first eligible.

Anyone who enrolled in the USFHP on or after Oct. 1, 2012, must shift to Medicare/Tricare for Life upon reaching age 65.

As an aside, beneficiaries under age 65 who become Medicare-eligible due to disability may delay Medicare enrollment and stay in the USFHP until age 65, at which point they, too, must shift to Medicare/Tricare for Life.

On your second question:

The unique nature of the USFHP derives from its origins in 1982, when the six USFHP health care providers took ownership and control of former U.S. Public Health Service hospitals after Congress folded those facilities into the military health care system.

When Tricare was created in the 1990s, Congress required USFHP-designated providers to offer Tricare Prime to their enrollees (now about 134,000 total across the six regions), and also carved out the USFHP's Medicare exception for older beneficiaries.

Recently, the entire USFHP program has taken hits as an inefficient strain on DoD's tight health care funds. Last year, the Government Accountability Office issued a sharply worded report with the pointed title: "US Family Health Plan is Duplicative and Should be Eliminated."

The GAO found "significant overlap" between the USFHP and the military's mainline health care programs in key areas, including benefits, geographic regions and provider networks. For example, more than 80 percent of service ZIP codes in four of the six USFHP regions are also served by Tricare Prime.

Auditors also found fault with the USFHP for remaining a "distinct statutory program" that is not truly integrated with the rest of the military health care system.

"This limits DoD's ability to increase efficiency by maximizing the use of its direct care system of military treatment facilities, which USFHP enrollees are generally precluded from using because the USFHP's payment structure is intended to cover all enrollees' health care costs," the report said.

The GAO also noted that the role of the USFHP "has not been reassessed since Tricare was implemented in the 1990s."

The full report is online.

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