DOD: Cash Payments May Not Violate Tricare Rules

The U.S. Department of Defense has proposed new regulations for coordination of private employee benefits with Tricare.

Tricare is a federal program that provides health coverage for military personnel, dependents and retirees who get care away from military facilities.

The proposed regulation would permit employers to use Section 125 cafeteria plans to make cash payments to employees in lieu of providing health coverage, as long as the same payments were available to all employees and not simply those eligible for Tricare, officials write in a preamble to the proposed regulations, which appear today in the Federal Register.