Does anyone know if tricare covers marriage counseling?

Question

Our marriage is currently on the brink of divorce and we could use some extensive help on resolving our problems.

Answer 1

no. It DOES however cover FAMILY counseling. Most Tricare ParticiaptingTherapists know this and bill accordingly.

additionally, you can go through Military One Source and be referred to a counselor for 5 free sessions.

Answer 2

Tricare Marriage Counseling

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

Military health clinics do offer marital counseling. This can be an advantage as they clinic will give your military spouse a slip so that he can be excused from duty to attend sessions. There are a few things to consider if you go this route though. First, your husband will have to inform his supervisor he is attending counseling. Now, he may end up needing to do that regardless of where you go, but he will not have a choice if he uses the military system. They only have appointments during duty hours (hence the slips to assure his attending), so he would have to make arrangements to go. Also, many of the military mental health clinics are horribly understaffed. Priority in available slots go to military members who have been ordered to treatment, ones with PTSD and other serious issues. Couples and family members, when they can get in, are often only given 30 minute appointments and that really isn't sufficent amount of time to beging working on issues. Also, military providers tend to focus more on situational issues rather than working towards more long term goals. If your marriage has issues that are not caused by something like stress over a deployment, you may be better off with civilian therapists who can take a more long term approach.

That being said, Tricare does cover marital counseling. Go to the Tricare website, click into your region and use the search engine to find a list of participating therapists in your area. Generally, you will want an LCSW (clinical social worker) over a psychologist. Call the ones that you feel may be the best match (location) and find out if they have Tricare slots available and what their hours are. Once you find one you would like to try, you can decide if your spouse will need to inform his command because of possible duty conflicts. Most supervisors are willing to work with couples. My husband and I were in counseling for a year. We generally scheduled our appointments during his lunch (our therapist was right outside the gates) or at the very end of the day. We also were able to get the same appointment each week...a good question to ask any therapist you talk to.

You do not need a referal for mental health services before beginning counseling. After 8 sessions, if you choose to continue, the therapist will have to submit a statement to Tricare explaining why counseling is needed and a treatment plan. Tricare will cover one session a week for marital counseling. Once approved, the plan is usually good for one year before having to be re-approved. You should not have to pay any co-pay, but again be sure to check on this when you first talk to the therapist.

I wish you and your husband well.

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Does anyone know if tricare covers marriage counseling?

Answer 6

Army One Source Marriage Counseling

Answer 7

Like others said there is free counseling on base. That being said talk to your PCM. They can refer you for family counseling so I'd assume they can also refer you for marriage counseling. Basically for anything with tricare you have to jump through some hoops but from my experience it's not really that huge a deal. Also you could call the tricare office for your region and just ask them what they'll cover (exactly) and they'll tell you how to handle it for that region (that's how I found out how to get the family counseling and counseling for one of our kids) Plus there are usually free places in any town (usually associated with churches) that do it free b/c they count it as a ministry. We got a list of those from our son's PCM in case we wanted that instead.
Good luck finding what you need ;-)

Answer 8

Yes it does, but it depend on where you are stationed and as with any thing else in TriCare you have to get a referral, if you are on a base then you have to see one of the military doctors or chaplains. My husband and I went to a chaplain and it was very nice if you are not religious they do not focus on that part of the marriage. Good luck!

Answer 9

Yes, they offer marriage counseling on base or if you feel more comfortable, you can ask your PCM to give you a referral to an off-base doctor. My husband and I also went through CREDO, an inter-denominational, bible based, Christian group. The chaplain offered a marriage retreat for couples that was very informative, although it was not counseling, it did help us. It was a whole weekend, it was free and they offered us a wealth of knowledge.

Answer 10

Go to family services office. They have lots of different free counseling services, from family to marriage. Also base chaplain might have a marriage retreat planned that you might want to try. It all depends on what you want to get accomplished.