UPDATE: DEERS / ID CARD RESTORED

To our Coast Guard, PHS and NOAA retirees and their families,

The Coast Guard and the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) has restored all affected members’ DEERS/TRICARE eligibility.  Approximately 16,500 members’ eligibility was temporarily dropped when a planned file transfer between the Coast Guard and DMDC ran into technical difficulties.  Coast Guard and DMDC leadership and technical teams worked expeditiously to restore the accounts to the proper status enabling regular TRICARE coverage.  Additionally, our combined teams are reviewing the file transfer process to make sure this type of issue does not happen again.  We regret the inconvenience and uncertainty this outage caused and appreciate you checking PPC’s website for the latest information and sharing it with our Coast Guard family.

PPC sent notifications to all retired members using their Direct Access email on file.  If you did not receive this notification, please take a moment to update your Direct Access contact information.  In addition to helping us pass information for emergencies such as this, it will greatly assist everybody for future messaging . . . especially with tax season right around the corner.  Additionally, the Coast Guard National Retiree Council (CGNRC) is another great resource for information across our retiree community.  Their Help Desk can be reached at 757-523-6940.  PPC thanks the CGNRC for helping pass information during this unfortunate DEERS eligibility event.

If you wish to verify your DEERS eligibility status, please visit the milConnect website:  milConnect (osd.mil).  If you have any questions or concerns, your primary point of contact is DMDC’s Beneficiary Line at 1-800-538-9552.  They are staffed to receive your calls and help resolve these types of situations.

DIRECT ACCESS CHALLENGES

Our Pay and Personnel Center team members are users of Direct Access –just like you– and are similarly impacted by challenges with the system.  Though the Pay and Personnel Center does not own or control repairs to Direct Access, we continue to advocate with the Program Office to prioritize repairs and the C5I Service Center to conduct those repairs.  We appreciate your patience and grace during this time period.

In essence, Direct Access is our ship . . . and our ship is damaged and undergoing depot-level repairs.  The crew at the Pay and Personnel Center are just as eager for Direct Access to come back to fully mission capable, so we can better serve our Coast Guard families.

RETIRED PAY

At present, for temporary, permanent, VA offset, AEW’s, CRDP, and CRSC disability, we are encountering a processing delay due to systematic issues and a shortage of personnel. You remain our primary concern. We want to assure you that we are fully committed to resolving these issues promptly and handling your cases with utmost proficiency.