03/12/2026
Encouraged to see this issue getting national attention.🇺🇸📢
Children in military families—especially those with special needs—deserve reliable access to the therapy services that help them communicate, grow, and thrive.
As a clinic that serves many military families in our community, we believe it’s important to speak up when access to care is at risk.
Over the past year, healthcare providers across the country—including speech, occupational, and physical therapists—have faced ongoing challenges with TRICARE, including significant payment delays, credentialing issues, and claim processing disruptions.
While these may sound like administrative issues, the reality is that they can create serious barriers to care for military families—especially children who rely on consistent therapy services to support their development.
Many of the families we serve are connected to Hunter Army Airfield and Fort Stewart, and we see firsthand the sacrifices these families make. Frequent moves, deployments, and transitions are already part of military life. Access to healthcare should not be another uncertainty they have to navigate.
When claims go unpaid for extended periods or administrative issues prevent providers from being properly credentialed or reimbursed, clinics across the country are placed in difficult positions. Ultimately, these problems can reduce the number of providers able to continue serving TRICARE families—something none of us want to see happen.
We are encouraged to see United States Congress beginning to take these concerns seriously and investigate the ongoing issues affecting both providers and military families. Oversight and accountability are critical to ensuring the system works the way it was intended—for the service members and families who sacrifice so much for our country.
Military families sacrifice so much for our country—their children should never have to sacrifice access to the care they need to grow and thrive.
We remain grateful for the opportunity to serve the military families in our community and will continue advocating for systems that protect their children’s access to care.
If you are part of a military family or work with military-connected children, what has your experience with TRICARE access to therapy services been like?
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Together we are building a community that advances the profession of physical therapy to improve the health of society.
