TRICARE Fax Numbers

DEERS is the record everything else depends on

The Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System holds who you are, who your family members are, and where you live. Coverage decisions, claim payments, and every piece of mail TRICARE sends you follow the address in DEERS, so a stale address there produces problems that look like plan problems.

TRICARE publishes four ways to update your contact information: online through ID Card Online at idco.dmdc.osd.mil, by phone on the DEERS Support Office line published on that page, by fax to (800) 336-4416 or (502) 335-9980, and by mail to the DMDC/DEERS Support Office in Seaside, California. Family members can update contact information once they are registered.

One constraint from TRICARE's own instruction: the address you supply has to be a physical address. A P.O. box will not be accepted.

Enrollment and claims route to your regional contractor

TRICARE is administered by regional contractors, and the destination for an enrollment form or a claim is set by the region, not by TRICARE centrally. There is no national TRICARE enrollment fax and no national claims fax to publish, so this page does not invent one.

Where to find yours:

• The enrollment form itself. The regional version of the form carries its own submission instructions.
• Your regional contractor's contact page, reached from the regions section of tricare.mil.
• The letter you received. A request for documents names the destination for those documents.
• The back of your uniformed services ID card, for the phone number that can tell you the rest.

If you are sending a claim, check whether the claims processor for your region takes them by mail only. Several do.

What TRICARE beneficiaries send

The documents that still move on paper are the ones with a signature or a supporting record attached:

• A DEERS contact-information update, with proof of the new address where asked
• An enrollment, disenrollment, or plan-change form, to the regional contractor
• Supporting documents for a claim, such as an itemized bill or a provider's statement
• An appeal of a denied claim or a denied authorization, to the address on the denial letter
• Documents supporting a qualifying life event, such as a marriage certificate or a birth certificate

Most of these are one to four pages, which is inside the free monthly allowance on every FaxTerra account.

Verify the number before you send

These documents carry Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and dependents' details, so confirm the destination first:

• Use the number printed on the form or letter you are responding to. That number is specific to the office expecting the document.
• For DEERS, use the numbers published at tricare.mil/DEERS rather than a number from a directory.
• Call and ask the office to read the fax number back to you before sending anything with a Social Security number on it.
• Check the region. A contractor's fax number changes when the contract changes hands, and old numbers stay in search results long after they stop working.

How to fax TRICARE paperwork without a fax machine

Create a free FaxTerra account with an email address, upload the completed form as a PDF or as photos taken with your phone, enter the fax number for the office you are writing to, and send. A delivery confirmation arrives by email, which is worth keeping for anything with a deadline attached.

Small documents send free within your monthly free pages, and longer packets are covered by a one-time credit pack from about 10¢ a page. See how to send a fax for accepted files and page limits, the VA fax guide for VA and CHAMPVA paperwork, and faxing medical records if you are also collecting records from a provider.