Ft. Meade - 0, Mrs. 2nd Lt - 1 :)Boyo, my ever helpful, infinitely patient sister and I trekked over to Ft. Meade today to get my military ID card and enroll in Tricare. And, much to my pleasant surprise, success! And a simple one at that! :) There was a little bit of a wait for the ID, but very reasonable time (take THAT MD DMV! It does not HAVE to take three hours for government services!), and then you get it right there. Obviously, I'm not a fan of my picture, although I did make an effort today with my hair and face, so I suppose it could have been worse. :)
Then, a little jaunt down the road to the Tricare Admin office and again, very nice and helpful folks. Turns out, we're already enrolled in Tricare Standard, which is apparently the one with more flexibility in providers, albeit more out of pocket costs. Tricare Prime, which I can choose to switch to has no out of pocket costs, but I can only receive treatment at military facilities. I am doing a little investigating to see if any of these options would cover any part of a midwifery/homebirth expense, but am not really counting on that, and so will probably go with Tricare Prime because we like cheap in these parts! Any military folks who happen across this, feel free to give advice, thoughts, comments, etc. on your experiences with military medical care.
It will depend upon your location if tricare will cover homebirth/ or birthcenter care and births. They will only reinburse for CNMs but not CPMs.
ReplyDeleteAt my dhs last assignment we were not given the option of standard and had prime remote. That worked out as well as it could. However, we've just switched to standard to we can have more freedom with who we go to for referrals...as I'm not satisfied with most of the MTF care we've experienced over the years. Cheap is understandable, it just depends on what your needs are as many do fine with their local MTF. I however, do not recommend an MTF for childbirth. At one time prime patients were required to go the their MTF for delivery. This was the case when my first two were born. I was told that had changed. However I'm hearing reports of women being told they "had" to go to the MTF most recently so it seems being prime may still limit options for childbirth. Keep researching let me know if you learn somethin new.
thanks so much for the info! since unfortunately, it will be more time than we thought until any deliveries will occur around here, I am leaning toward tricare prime. then, if we hate it, or do get pregnant, we can switch to standard for a while at least.
ReplyDeletei think... i'm just so wary of HMOs, and MTF care is just one big hmo, is it not? you said standard for you guys, is that because of your specialized care needs with the spleen disorder? because, that would make sense then, since you would need to see a doctor more often.
i will say, i am leary of having to fight about vaccines with whoever my son sees for his well checkups...