Hawai‘i TRICARE Tax Exemption Extended

Governor Neil Abercrombie recently signed Senate Bill 933 into law as Act 164. Act 164 extends for five years the general excise tax exclusion for amounts received by a managed care support contractor of the TRICARE program for the actual cost or advancement to third-party health care providers. If the TRICARE contractor, currently UnitedHealthcare Military & Veterans, previously TriWest Healthcare Alliance, did not get this exclusion, the costs would probably be passed on to TRICARE beneficiaries. This Act is effective July 1, 2013.

The United States Department of Defense established the TRICARE program as the managed care component of the military health system. The TRICARE program is a federal government program that provides health care services to over nine million Americans, composed of active duty, reserve, and retired members of the United States uniformed services, their family members, and survivors, including approximately one hundred fifty thousand current and former service members and their family members who reside in Hawai‘i.

Read the bill http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2013/Bills/GM1267_.pdf