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After 10 months of planning, TriWest Healthcare Alliance's representatives are gearing up to provide services to hundreds of thousands of eligible local military personnel, family members and retirees throughout San Diego.
As of July 1, Phoenix-based TriWest and its partner, BlueShield of California, manage military health care for some 400,000 San Diegans.
TriWest takes over for Woodland Hills-based health insurer HealthNet, which TriWest outbid in August for a five-year, $10 billion contract to direct military health care in California.
It's all part of the Department of Defense's efforts to consolidate its health care program, called Tricare, from 12 regions down to three nationwide.
TriWest chose San Diego as its strategic and policy headquarters because of the large local military presence in the area.
It is one of five regional hubs, said David J. McIntyre Jr., TriWest's president and chief executive.
The bulk of TriWest's 163 local employees, mostly service reps, work at the company's Kearny Mesa hub, with others running storefront offices at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, Camp Pendleton, North Island Naval Air Station and MCAS Miramar. Services range from enrolling beneficiaries and processing claims...