Plan History

The Uniformed Services Family Health Plan has a long history of providing health care to the military. In 1981 Congress enacted the Omnibus Reconciliation Act that designated certain former U.S. Public Health facilities as Uniformed Services Treatment Facilities (USTFs) to provide health care for uniformed services beneficiaries. In 1982, responsibility for overseeing the USTF Program was transferred from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Defense (DoD).

In 1993, the USTFs were reorganized by DoD into the Uniformed Services Family Health Plan, the first DoD-sponsored, full-risk managed health care plan, and the first to serve military beneficiaries ages 65 and over. In the same year, CHAMPUS, the national military health care program, was reorganized into TRICARE. TRICARE offers three options, including Prime, which is the managed care option. The US Family Health Plan was designated an authorized TRICARE Prime provider. Following the success of the Plan, Congress made it a permanent part of the military health care system in 1997.