DEERS
PHONE: 707-765-7354
FAX: 707-765-7339
E-mail the ID Card Office
What is DEERS?
DEERS is the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System. It is a computerized information service which contains over 13 million beneficiary records linked by an extensive voice and data communications network to Uniformed Services installations. DEERS data is used to provide information for ID card issuance and to verify and confirm eligibility for individuals entitled to Uniformed Services benefits.
What Does DEERS Do?
DEERS helps the Department of Defense get the most out of the dollars Congress provides for your benefits. DEERS data is used to forecast and allocate resources for building and staffing your hospitals, commissaries, and to provide the means by which individuals are granted access to these facilities. With DEERS, planners can provide Congress an accurate picture of the funding needed to support all of your benefit needs: Educational, consumer, recreational, and personal, as well as health. By screening eligibility, DEERS assures that resources are available for people like you who have earned their benefits. Did you know that, based on sponsor data alone, DEERS is saving the government an average of $89 million a year by reducing fraud and abuse of CHAMPUS and direct care medical benefits?
Who is Affected by DEERS?
Everyone in the Uniformed Services -- Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. DEERS is used to verify and confirm eligibility for active duty, reserve personnel and retired members and their dependents. In addition, others who qualify for benefits are surviving dependents, Guard/Reserve personnel activated for more that 30 days, and other special categories of people, such as unremarried former spouses.
How Does DEERS Work?
When you are enrolled, information about you and your entitlement goes into the DEERS data base. Then, whenever you go to a Uniformed Services facility, such as a personnel office or hospital, or submit a CHAMPUS or Dependent Dental claim, your eligibility can be confirmed immediately. Whenever new family members become eligible for benefits, by marriage or birth for example, or become ineligible by divorce or loss of dependency status, the family sponsor MUST act promptly to see that DEERS is updated. DEERS is also updated when a family member's ID card is renewed or when an active duty member retires or separates from the Service.
Enrolling a Dependent in DEERS
The following documentation is required to enroll a dependent into DEERS:
Spouse
- Marriage Certificate or state certified/sealed marriage License.
Child (Under age 21; includes adopted children and stepchildren)
- Birth Certificate, or
- Certificate of Live Birth, or
- Hospital Certificate of Live Birth, or
- VA Form Letter 27-656b for children of deceased DAV, or
- Adoption Decree, Adoption Papers, Adoption Certificate or Adoption Registration.
Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF)