Researching TRICARE Manuals

If you have a question(s) on any TRICARE policies and procedures, you can research the TRICARE Manuals developed by the TRICARE Management Activity (TMA). These manuals are located at http://manuals.tricare.osd.mil or on www.tricare.mil.

There are four TRICARE Manuals:

The TRICARE Operations Manual includes TMA directives on the administration of the TRICARE program.
The TRICARE Policy Manual details TMA policy on TRICARE benefits, including covered services, limitations and exclusions.
The TRICARE Reimbursement Manual provides guidance on TRICARE’s reimbursement methodologies.
The TRICARE Systems Manual defines contractor responsibilities related to the automated processing of health care information and the transmission of data between contractor and TMA.

Here is an example of how to research the TRICARE Manuals on TRICARE policy on balance billing:

Go to http://manuals.tricare.osd.mil for direct access. If you go to www.tricare.mil, enter the TRICARE Management Activity portion of the site and then click on “Policy” to find the TRICARE Manuals page.
In the upper left hand corner, click on the “Search” link. This will take you to the Search page, where you can search the current TRICARE Manuals individually, a select few or all the manuals.
- There is a list of current manuals, the most recent changes to the manuals, superseded manuals and most recent changes to the superseded manuals. Note, in addition to the manuals mentioned above, you can also search the Code of Federal Regulations (32 CFR 199) that pertains specifically to TRICARE.
- Once you’ve selected the manuals you would like to search, enter your question or search word(s) in the "Search for" box.
For this example, under the header “Current TRICARE Program Manuals” click “TRICARE Policy Manual (August 1, 2002)” and type in the words ’balance billing” in the “Search for” area.
You will now see all policy references containing the search words “balance billing” in them. Browse through each reference until you obtain the information you need. You can narrow the results/reference list by typing in your search term “balance billing” once again in the “Search for” area and clicking the “Search Results” button. The initial search will pull all references containing “balance” and/or “billing” but they don’t always show up together in the initial results.
Once you are in a document, you can type your search term in the “Find” area/box in the upper right corner to locate term within the document.

Search Tips

When using the search option, be very specific with your search words.
Sometimes you will find that your chosen search words do not bring up any references. In these cases, try alternative words or use just one word instead of two or more. You should also try searching another manual in case the information is actually contained in a manual other than the one you are searching.
If you want to search another manual, you cannot just enter new search words after your initial search. You must first click on “New Basic Search” on the top, left-hand corner of the displayed page. This will bring you to a page where you will see all manuals displayed. You can choose to click on just one manual or click on several manuals to do another search. If you choose several manuals, you will be provided with references to all manuals in your results page.
Sometimes information is contained in both the Policy and Reimbursement Manuals, so you may need to search more than one manual at a time. To search more than one manual, you must first choose the manuals in which to do your search and then follow the guidelines outlined in the sub-bullet just above.

Published Date: 04/30/2009