You and your entitled family members will be enrolled in the MOD’s healthcare plan, administered by an American company called Meritain Health, prior to arriving in country. Your healthcare coverage through this plan will start from the day you arrive in the US. 

You are entitled to all medically necessary treatment that would be available to you on the NHS.

There will be a Meritain Health ID card in your arrival pack. If you have family, there will be two cards covering all entitled members of the family. The cards show your individual ID number and the British Defence Staff group name and number. You must always carry your card with you, in case of an emergency. 

For emergency care you should go to the closest emergency room (see the Emergency Care section) and it does not need to be in-network or require prior authorisation.

For non-emergency care, all of the doctors, hospitals and other medical facilities you use must be in the Aetna Choice POS II network of healthcare providers (see Finding a Provider in the Aetna Choice POS II Network for more details). Some treatment is automatically covered, but some requires prior authorisation from Defence Medical Services. This is detailed on the Seeking Non-Emergency Treatment page, so please familiarise yourself with the process before accessing treatment, otherwise you may find you need to pick up the costs.

For guidance on the ‘Right Level of Care’ click on this LINK to view a document provided by Meritain Health.

You can contact the Healthcare and Education team if you have any questions.

Meritain Health – Member Portal Access

Members are requested to ensure that they have setup their Meritain Health Member Portal Access at Meritain Health. Having an online account has a number of advantages including:

• Adding and updating your residential address to ensure you receive Meritain correspondence.
• Requesting replacement Meritain cards.
• Viewing current and past claims.

Please see this flyer for more information and instructions on how to register.

Medical Privacy

Communication with the Healthcare Team at BDSUS is usually through the bdsus-sg-healthed-mailbox@mod.gov.uk. This  mailbox is accessed only by a small team of trained professionals who have all undergone Caldicott training in the protection of personal data.  They will only seek information from you if it is required by the medical chain of command to allow the medical staff in the DGP to make an appropriate decision on your care pathway.  You can further protect your own sensitive data by ensuring any bills you may receive from the US Health system are addressed correctly.  Any information submitted in this way is used only for accessing care; it is not shared with the Chain of Command for other reasons.