Prenatal Care

• Prenatal care is the care you get from the time you find out you’re pregnant until you deliver your baby.
• As soon as you think you may be pregnant, make an appointment with your primary care doctor.
• TRICARE covers medically necessaryTo be medically necessary means it is appropriate, reasonable, and adequate for your condition. prenatal care, but there are some limits.

Prenatal Services

TRICARE covers the following services to monitor the health of the baby or if you have a high-risk pregnancy:

• Amniocentesis
• Chordocentesis
• Chorionic villis sampling
• Fetal stress test
• Electronic fetal monitoring

Prenatal Screenings

TRICARE covers prenatal screenings. This includes, but isn’t limited to, the following:

• Anemia screening
• Asymptomatic bacteriuria, UTI, or other infection screening (urine culture at 12–16 weeks gestation)
• Gestational diabetes mellitus screening between 24 and 28 weeks and for those at high risk of gestational diabetes
• Hepatitis B screening
• HIV screening
• Rh incompatibility screening
• Syphilis screening
• Other screenings, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Ultrasounds

Doctors may do ultrasounds for different reasons. TRICARE covers ultrasounds used to:

• Estimate gestational age
• Evaluate fetal growth
• Conduct a biophysical evaluation for fetal well-being
• Evaluate a suspected ectopic pregnancy
• Find the cause of vaginal bleeding
• Diagnose or evaluate multiple pregnancies
• Confirm heart activity
• Evaluate maternal pelvic masses or uterine abnormalities
• Evaluate suspected hydatidiform mole
• Evaluate the fetus’s condition in late registrants for prenatal care

TRICARE doesn’t cover ultrasounds for routine screening or only to determine the sex of the baby.