The Pentagon is moving ahead with plans to slash its network of Tricare Prime providers, starting by eliminating the Prime option in three states and two cities in the Tricare West region.

As of April 1, as many as 30,000 Prime beneficiaries — retirees, Active Guard and Reserve troops, and family members — in Iowa; Minnesota; Oregon; Reno, Nev.; and Springfield, Mo., will have to switch to Tricare Standard, a traditional fee-for-service health plan, according to a source with knowledge of the reorganization.

Pentagon officials would not confirm that the five areas will lose Prime in April.

The areas lie outside Prime service areas covered under new Tricare regional contracts awarded by the Pentagon.

Under those contracts, Tricare will offer Prime networks only within “catchment areas,” defined as a 40-mile radius around military treatment facilities and in areas affected by the 2005 base closure and realignment process.Click here to read more

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