Recent additions to the joint federal travel regulation (JFTR) allow the military to reimburse parents or other family members traveling to a hospital to visit a sick or injured Sailor or Marine. The specific criteria is outlined in the JFTR.
When the JFTR was established, it provided per diem to active-duty military health care beneficiaries traveling greater than 100 miles each way from home for special medical care not available locally. JFTR currently covers costs up to the established per diem level to the non-active duty beneficiary and one other person.
Two new benefits were added to the JFTR in October. The first covers parents or other close family members, who are not normally eligible for the military health care program, to receive per diem.
“For example, a Sailor is involved in an automobile accident and admitted to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., in critical condition. His health care provider feels it is medically necessary for him to have family members at his bedside. The health care provider completes the required paperwork. BUMED would then reimburse the Sailor’s parents for travel costs from their home to Bethesda and cover the costs of their stay, up to the local per diem rate,” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (FMF) Douglas N. Elsesser, program manager for Beneficiary Counseling and Assistance Coordinator at BUMED. “This is a nice benefit that was not available in the past.”
“Another addition to the JFTR pertains to service members who were injured in Operations Enduring Freedom or Noble Eagle and those service members who are serving in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq right now,” added Elsesser. “If one of these service members is injured or becomes sick as a result of one of those operations, their family members will be reimbursed at the per diem rate.”
For more information, contact a military treatment facility health benefits advisor or beneficiary counseling and assistance coordinator.
Most of the Above Information Courtesy of United States Navy.
