OKay, so when my DH was put on his Active orders, he wasn't put on Title 10, he was put on NG-32... (Pretty sure I got those right...) Well, when this happened, I called Tricare to make sure we were still covered since we got a letter in the mail saying we no longer qualified for Reserve Select.
They said yes, my DH had been transfered to Prime and I had been put on Standard. This was fine with me, personally. However, she told me that once he deploys and is on true Title-10 orders, I would be transfered over to Prime as well.
So I asked her if I would be able to continue seeing my Doctor when on Prime, because as far as I know, on Prime if you live within 50 miles of a Military Base, you have to go to the Military hospital and see the Military doctors. She told me I would most likely have to change my doctor over to one at the Base hospital because we're not over 50 miles away from the Base. We're 49.
Does anyone else have more experience with this? Do I HAVE to switch to Prime? If so, do I really HAVE to switch my Doctor?
I really want to continue seeing the doctor I've been seeing. I mean, I'm halfway through my Pregnancy. It seems like it would suck big time to switch to new Doctor at this point. Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
Re: Soooo confused....
I don't think they can just switch you from Standard to Prime without you actually doing the switching. I haven't dealt with reserves at all, but as far as I know, I can walk into the tricare office anytime and switch from Prime to Standard. I know I can't switch from Standard to Prime for like a year after switching to Standard (if that makes sense) due to H's rank, but I can switch to Standard anytime I want.
I don't blame you for not wanting to switch halfway through, that's insane.
Thanks for the input, y'all. I was just confused, I guess. The way the woman on the phone explained it made me think I'd automatically be switched. I'm going to call back in the morning and see if they'll explain it to me more carefully.
Hopefully the woman I talked to won't answer the line I'm on again. XD
Make a pregnancy ticker
CJ 05/29/2013
Let me tell ya' that most Tricare reps have no idea what they are talking about. Very rarely will you find a person who knows what they are talking about. I have had friends who have problems even with Active Duty Tricare. I would say wait till you get your Tricare Prime Remote packet, and that has better information. From my personal experience, we live about ~50 miles from a military hospital so we qualify as Remote. My DH got deployed last year we got put on Prime Remote and I stayed with my doctor because he was within the network. Right after we got active duty orders I called like you did and since my DH was pre-deployment training in GA, we live in CA, I was told I didn't even qualify for Tricare because we weren't living together at the time. I told the lady that unless spouses are now allowed to deploy with the soldier then that would be a problem. If your doctor is in the network and they take Tricare you can stay with them.
This doesn't always work. My PCM is a civilian since I live far enough from base to not have to go to the MFT for PCM. She referred me to a civilian OB. Tricare denied the request and sent me to base. I ended up liking the hospital and OB clinic on base so it's not huge issue, but different hospitals have different rules. At ours, the first X number of pregancies per month belong to the base hospital. After they reach capacity, they start referring out.
It has nothing to do with distance (I live too far to see a PCM on base, yet having a child on base is not an issue...call me crazy, but I'd rather drive extra time to go get a routine Pap than to give birth!) and the doctors can't do that much either, unless they find that you need specialty care that base can't provide for you.
The easiest way if you want to see a specific doctor is to switch to Standard, and not play the Russian roulette of getting your referral approved.
You can stay on standard and stay with your doc. I dont think they can switch you to prime unless you authorize it