Defense officials are expected to announce soon that military retirees and their dependents living more than 40 miles from a military treatment facility or base closure site will lose access to TRICARE Prime, the military's managed care option.
These beneficiaries would be expected to shift to TRICARE Standard, their fee-for-service insurance option, which would mean an increase in out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries who are frequent users of health services.
A total of 171,000 retirees and dependents are expected to have to shift coverage when remote Prime networks go away.