NAS Jacksonville, FL

NAVAL HOSPITAL JACKSONVILLE
Naval Hospital Jacksonville is the largest military community hospital within TRICARE South Region. The TRICARE South Region includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The hospital is a family practice teaching facility and the fourth largest hospital in Navy Medicine. It is located on NAS Jacksonville at the corner of Mustin Road and Child Street. Geographically, the seven branch health clinics and substance abuse rehabilitation program span over 950 miles in Georgia and Florida - making the hospital a regional health care system.

Branch Health Clinics are located at NS Mayport, NSB Kings Bay, Ga. and NAS Jacksonville. The hospital also has branch health clinics in Key West, Fla., Albany, Athens and Atlanta, Ga.

Naval Hospital Jacksonville has a unique responsibility to be a premier health care facility in the community while supporting operational readiness. As part of the Navy Medicine team, healthcare professionals continue to provide the highest quality care on the front line in combat areas around the globe. The hospital maintains several deployable platforms, the largest of which is Fleet Hospital Jacksonville. Assignment to the fleet hospital is an additional duty for 650 staff members. Fleet hospital personnel can deploy worldwide with little or no notice.

Other Naval Hospital Jacksonville deployable units include the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, which when called up, supports Marine Expeditionary Units and Casualty and Receiving Treatment Ship Team 8, which sends medical personnel to man shipboard hospital facilities.

The hospital is an eight-story building on the banks of the St. Johns River. In addition to the main hospital building, there is a modern two-story building that houses a majority of the outpatient clinics. The outpatient department operates a variety of specialty clinics and is designed to accommodate the steadily increasing need for outpatient services.

The emergency room is open 24 hours a day. The emergency room uses a triage system; less sever cases may have to wait until the more serious patients have been seen. Patients with non-emergency needs or who want to contact their primary care manager for an appointment should call (904) 542-4677. For more information about Naval Hospital Jacksonville, call 542-7300 or click here.


BRANCH HEALTH CLINIC JACKSONVILLE
The Naval Hospital's Branch Health Clinic is located in Building 964 at the corner of Enterprise Avenue and Ajax Street. The clinic provides routine medical care for active duty personnel.

All active duty personnel reporting to the base or tenant commands are required to check into the Health Records Office, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a full verification of health records.

Medical care, including sick call, is obtained by appointment only. The appointment desk is open 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each weekday and can be reached by calling (904) 542-3500. Messages may be left after hours. On weekends and holidays, active duty sick call is held at the Naval Hospital Jacksonville Emergency Room from 8 a.m. to noon.

Additional information about immunizations, optometry, physical exams, pap smears, pregnancy tests and other health care services offered by the branch health clinic is available by calling (904) 542-3500.


COMPOSITE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM (CHCS) & DEFENSE ENROLLMENT ELIGIBILITY REPORTING SYSTEM (DEERS)
Naval Hospital Jacksonville maintains the Composite Health Care System, a medical computer that allows doctors to track everything about a patient, including labs, appointments, X-rays, etc. The hospital also manages the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS), a computerized registry of all military beneficiaries in the area. The system is intended to help better serve patients. However, for it to work correctly, all people receiving care through the military must be registered.

To avoid lengthy waits, please pre-register at Naval Hospital Jacksonville in Outpatient Records or one of its branch health clinics. Remember if you have a change of address you will need to have your address and phone number updated. For more information, call 542-3728.

Also, military health care recipients must ensure they are registered in DEERS. DEERS is a national database which is used to verify eligibility for military benefits. Without DEERS enrollment, family members may be denied health benefits other than emergency care, so please ensure your DEERS data is accurate.

If sponsors or family members have any questions about benefits or DEERS enrollment, call the DEERS Beneficiary Telephone Center at (800) 538-9552. The hours of operation are 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (PST), Monday through Friday.

The only changes that the DEERS Beneficiary Telephone Center will make are address changes. All other changes such as marriage, divorce, birth, death or adoption must be made at a Personnel Support Detachment (PSD). The NAS Jacksonville PSD is located in Building 789 and can be reached at (904) 542-3728.


TRICARE
Jacksonville implemented the Department of Defense's TRICARE system in 1996. Under this health care plan, active duty families, retirees, and their families may choose the type of coverage and the avenue through which they get their health care.

TRICARE consists of three health care options: TRICARE Prime, TRICARE Extra and TRICARE Standard. TRICARE Prime is the military's managed care option. Under this plan, enrolled beneficiaries choose a personal doctor (either military or civilian but will be assigned to the Naval Hospital if the enrollee lived in the hospital's catchment area and there are openings for new enrollees at the Naval Hospital) who will guide them through all of their health care needs. This personal doctor is called a primary care manager (PCM).

TRICARE Extra and Standard are TRICARE's non-enrolled options. TRICARE Standard works exactly like the old CHAMPUS program. The government will share the cost of visits to authorized civilian doctors. TRICARE Extra is the same, except the government will pay a higher percentage of the cost if the patient chooses from a list of TRICARE Prime Network of providers. TRICARE will only cost share covered provider visits once the TRICARE Extra and TRICARE Standard deductibles are met.

All active duty personnel are considered to be in TRICARE Prime. They receive the highest priority for care in the Military Health System and their PCM will usually be assigned their sick call provider. TRICARE eligible non-active duty beneficiaries (family members and retirees) must make the decision whether to enroll in TRICARE Prime. If they don't enroll, they are automatically participants of TRICARE Standard and/or TRICARE Extra whenever they use a civilian doctor and file a claim for reimbursement. The TRICARE Standard and/or Extra beneficiary is responsible for ensuring providers they use are TRICARE certified and/or authorized providers. If the provider is not TRICARE authorized, the beneficiary will be responsible for the total cost of the entire medical bill, and TRICARE will pay nothing.

Under the new TRICARE rules, priority for care at Naval Hospital Jacksonville is as follows:

1. Active duty personnel

2. Active duty families enrolled in TRICARE Prime

3. Retirees and their families enrolled in TRICARE Prime

4. Active duty families not enrolled in TRICARE Prime

5. Retirees and their families not enrolled in TRICARE Prime

6. All other beneficiaries

Beneficiaries are encouraged to learn all they can about their military health care options before making a decision about TRICARE. To find out more, contact Naval Hospital Jacksonville's Health Benefits Advisors who are located on the second floor of the main hospital or can be reached by phone at (904) 542-9164. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can also call the Beneficiary Information Line at (800) 444-5445.


DENTAL
The Dental Clinic located in Building 964 at the corner of Enterprise Avenue and Ajax Street, provides a full spectrum of dental services to active duty beneficiaries.

All dental care is obtained by appointment only. The appointment desk is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays. The Dental Clinic can also be reached at 542-3441. For emergencies only, an after-hours duty dental technician can be reached at (904) 542-3500 and press #0.

By law, family members enrolled in the TRICARE Active Duty Family Member Dental Plan (separate from the TRICARE Health Care program) are not entitled to treatment at military dental facilities for service covered by the dental plan. Due to our extremely limited space available, membership in the TRICARE Active Duty Family Member Dental Plan and Retiree Dental Plan is strongly encouraged. Information on these plans is available by calling United Concordia at (800) 866-8499 for the Active Duty Family Member Plan or (888) 838-8737 for the Retiree Dental Plan.