Keeping Private Things Private: TriWest Protects You

Published Jan. 20, 2009
By Diane R. Mayer
TriWest Healthcare Alliance

PHOENIX -- We all know that it's important to protect your personal financial information; things like your Social Security number, bank account number, credit card number. It is equally important to protect your personal and potentially sensitive health information.

TriWest Healthcare Alliance wants you to rest assured that we are hard at work keeping your private information private.

TriWest has recently updated the www.triwest.com terms and conditions to include information on the use of electronic signatures. These terms and conditions and the TriWest privacy policy also include details regarding the use, review and correction of personal information.

To further protect your privacy, TriWest established a standard of confidentiality for information about a range of medical conditions that are considered sensitive. Information that is deemed to be "sensitive health information" is anything related to the treatment of:

 Reproductive health  Sexually transmitted diseases
 Substance abuse  Mental health
 HIV  Abuse
 Rape

The detailed list of all specific sensitive diagnoses is available at www.triwest.com>Beneficiary Services>Auths/Referrals>Popular Links.

Personal health information about the range of medical diagnoses that are considered particularly sensitive is not available to registered users of www.triwest.com. Beneficiaries with a secure www.triwest.com account will receive QuickAlert e-mails only for non-sensitive authorizations and referrals. The restriction of access to sensitive diagnoses information is just one of many ways TriWest protects the privacy of TRICARE beneficiaries.

Sensitive diagnosis information will be mailed to the beneficiary or it may be requested by calling 1-888-TRIWEST (874-9378).

New Feature Online
TriWest has recently expanded the viewing capability of sponsors on www.triwest.com. Previously, authorizations, referrals and other information about family members age 12 and older were not accessible. Sponsors now have the ability to view all non-sensitive diagnosis authorization, referral and claims information about family members under age 18.

To see non-sensitive information for spouses and family members age 18 and older, specific access must be granted by the spouse and family member.

If you have questions regarding this policy or your TRICARE benefits, please visit www.triwest.com, contact TriWest at 1-888-TRIWEST (874-9378), or use the secure Web mail function of your www.triwest.com account to send us a secure message.

Tricare Privacy