DEERS: The Gateway to TRICARE

People usually do not understand the difference between being qualified for and getting registered with TRICARE. You must first register with the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) in order to receive medical coverage and other benefits.

DEERS is a digital database for military servicemembers, their families, and others beneficiaries and dependents, which allows them to utilize TRICARE and other benefits such as entrance to commissaries, and other uniformed services benefits, etc.

Whether a person is in the service currently or is a retired military servicemember, your registration in DEERS is automatic. However, you need to enroll your family members in DEERS and make sure all the data is correctly registered in the database and up to date.

United States National Guard members and Reserve military servicemembers who are on active duty are automatically registered with TRICARE. Whenever your address or the registration status of any family member or any other relevant data changes, it is your responsibility to update the changes in the DEERS database. If the DEERS database is not properly updated, you will face problem in getting your TRICARE benefits in a timely manner so it is imperative that if any life changes such as an address change, re-enlistment, divorce, birth of a child, or any other life changing event occurs, it will appear in your digital information files.

You can confirm your DEERS data with regional TRICARE managed care representatives, at a local TRICARE service center, or your nearby Uniformed Services personnel office, or wherever you get your identity card.

Address modifications can be completed by any registered family member. However, only the main insured servicemember sponsor can add or remove a family member from the DEERS database. When doing these modifications, you will need supportive official documents like birth certificate, adoption certificate, death certificate, official documentation of a divorce, or a marriage certificate, depending on who and what is involved in the changes you are marking within the program. Once an individual is enrolled in DEERS, they can update their own personal information as beneficiaries or family members.

In the case that the family members of an in-service or retired military servicemember are not accompanying him or her to the local office for DEERS registration and has an dependent identity card, the sponsor must submit the required documents.  This includes a fully filled-in and signed Application for Uniformed Services Identification Cards and DEERS Enrollment, commonly known as DD Form 1172-2.

Status altering events in life, such as marriage, divorce, death, birth or adoption of a child, etc., are also to be reported and entered into the DEERS database. This helps the Department of Defense determine the eligibility of your benefits and your family’s benefits. In case you are activated on duty and you marry or move to a new address, you should update your data on DEERS as early as possible. Otherwise, you or your family member’s medical benefits may be interrupted.