Not your situation? Walk the flowchart

DBQprep | Getting out

For the Family: What Happens to Your Coverage

Not clinic-reviewed.

For the Family: What Happens to Your Coverage

TLDR

  • If the member RETIRED, your coverage continues as a retiree family. The work on your end is the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS), a 90-day enrollment window, and new identification (ID) cards once the paperwork lands.
  • If the member was SEPARATED, your bridge is the Transitional Assistance Management Program (TAMP) — but only if the service recorded it. Verify DEERS before you believe either answer. After that, the Continued Health Care Benefit Program (CHCBP) is the paid bridge: $5,339 a quarter for a family, 60 days to buy it.
  • If the member is on the Temporary Disability Retired List (TDRL), your status isn't settled yet. It follows the final disposition. Plan for both branches, not one.

The two doors

There are two doors here, and which one you're behind changes everything about your coverage.

Retired door: you remain retiree family. TRICARE continues. The work is administrative — DEERS, enrollment, cards.

Separated door: retiree-family TRICARE eligibility ends. Your bridge, if you have one, is TAMP — and only if your service recorded it — followed by CHCBP, which you pay for.

Everything below is detail on those two doors, plus a third situation — TDRL — where you don't know which door you're behind yet.

If the member retired

You are retiree family now. That status has to be reflected in DEERS — the system that confirms your eligibility for care. Check it. Don't assume it updated itself.

You have a 90-day enrollment period after the retirement date to get your TRICARE enrollment in place. Use that window; don't let it slide because paperwork feels handled.

New ID cards follow retirement processing. The timing follows the paperwork, not a specific calendar day. Don't expect a card "the day after" retirement — ask, and check back, rather than assuming a delay means something is wrong.

If the member was separated

Do not assume you have TAMP. Do not assume you don't. Verify first.

TAMP gives 180 days of no-premium transitional TRICARE for qualifying members and eligible family — but it is not automatic for a medical separation. Eligibility depends on specific legal categories, your service determines it, and it has to be recorded in DEERS. Check DEERS. Ask the service directly whether TAMP was recorded for your family. Your next steps follow from that answer, not from what you assume the answer is.

If TAMP applies, it runs 180 days. If it doesn't apply, or after it ends, CHCBP is your next bridge. CHCBP is premium coverage, available for up to 18 months after TRICARE or TAMP ends. You must submit the application and your first premium within 60 days of losing coverage. That is 60 days, not 90 — the 90-day window you may have heard of is a separate TRICARE rule and does not apply here. Don't confuse the two.

calendar year 2026 (CY2026) CHCBP family premium: $5,339 per quarter. Individual coverage is $2,103 per quarter. Budget for this before coverage lapses, not after.

If the member is on TDRL

Your status is not settled. It follows whatever the member's final disposition turns out to be, and that can go more than one way.

If the member moves from TDRL to the Permanent Disability Retired List (PDRL), they remain a medical retiree. Your family remains retiree family. DEERS has to reflect that, and new ID cards follow processing.

If the member is separated at the final TDRL determination, retiree-family TRICARE eligibility ends for your family. From there, your family's TAMP depends on the same service determination described above — not automatic. If eligible, it's 180 days. CHCBP is purchasable within 60 days of the loss of coverage, for up to 18 months.

If the member is found fit for duty, return to active duty requires the member's consent. Without consent, and with no other disposition, the member is discharged and TDRL retired pay stops. For your family, coverage follows whatever actually happens — continued retirement keeps your retiree-family eligibility, discharge ends it, and TAMP applies only if your family separately qualifies.

Put two dates on your calendar now: the member's exam cycle, at least every 18 months, and the 3-year mark, when a final determination is required. Don't wait for someone to remind you.

The paper that needs YOUR signature

This is the one decision on this page you cannot be left out of.

The SBP — Survivor Benefit Plan — election is made before retirement, on DD Form 2656. If no valid election is made, automatic spouse coverage applies by default.

Declining or reducing your own spouse coverage cannot happen without your written concurrence. The member cannot do this alone, on your behalf, without your signature.

After retirement, this election generally locks. Know what's being decided before you're sitting at the table being asked to sign it — not after.

The traps

Assuming DEERS updated itself. It doesn't, until someone confirms it.

Assuming TAMP works in either direction. Some families who have it never find out and miss the window. Some families who don't have it assume they do, and find out the hard way.

Hearing "90 days" and applying it to CHCBP. CHCBP's buy window is 60 days. The 90-day rule is a different thing entirely.

Treating a TDRL family's coverage as settled before the final determination. It isn't, until it is.

Finding out about the SBP concurrence requirement at the signing table, instead of before.

Where to go

  • DEERS/ID card office — your family's status and cards.
  • The member's service — the official record of whether TAMP applies to you.
  • The TRICARE contractor — CHCBP enrollment.
  • The member's Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officer (PEBLO) — while the board is still open.
  • Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) — SBP and retiree pay questions.