The SPONSOR file contains a list of people who are the sponsors for patients who have Tricare insurance coverage. These people, who are typically active duty personnel or military retirees, are stored as either patients (in file #2) or non-patients in the SPONSOR PERSON (#355.82) file. A variable pointer is used to point to the person in either of those two files. This file is used as a list of sponsors who may be the sponsor of more than one patient. The SPONSOR RELATIONSHIP (#355.81) file relates a sponsor to a specific patient.
TECHNICAL DESCR: This is a variable-pointer field which is used to identify the sponsor. If the sponsor is a military retiree, then that person may likely be a patient and thus have a record in the PATIENT (#2) file. The sponsor name,
date of birth, and social security number should be retrieved from the PATIENT (#2) file. Sponsors who are active-duty personnel are unlikely to be patients, and thus a separate file (SPONSOR PERSON, file #355.82) is used
to store the name, date of birth, and social security number.
HELP-PROMPT: Enter 'A' for Active Duty or 'R' for a Military Retiree.
DESCRIPTION: This field is used to determine if the sponsor is an Active Duty member of the military, or a Military retiree. This information about the sponsor is useful in determining the type of medical benefits that are available
HELP-PROMPT: Enter the branch of the military in which the sponsor is/was enrolled.
DESCRIPTION:
This field is used to store the branch of the military in which the sponsor is currently enrolled or is retired from. This field must be printed on claim forms submitted to the Tricare fiscal intermediary.
HELP-PROMPT: Enter a free-text value (2-20 characters) for the sponsor's military rank.
DESCRIPTION:
This field is used to store the sponsor's current or retired rank in the military. This information is useful in determining the type of medical benefits that are available to the patient.