Feeling like i'm getting the shaft, question/vent

kierstensteck · August 2010

My husband is in the Army and we are stationed in NC for an extended school. Sad Not only am I the furthest away from my family I can be without leaving the continent, I feel like my baby and I are being shorted on our health care. Instead of a 20 week appointment I had my U/S, that's it. I will not see a doctor again until 24 weeks. Is this the case for anyone else? At this point I really don't have a choice on what doctors I see or where I deliver, but I feel like this is a flawed system. Like I said, I just kind of needed to vent, and I want to see if anyone else has a similar situation.

EDT: ***the last time I was my dr was a month ago, and it will be another month before i see one again. My U/S was in the radiology department and we saw only the tech. So it will be 2 months between appointments.

ekmebm · August 2010

Ugh....it's not my insurance anymore but TriCare sucks. Is DH stationed at Ft. Bragg? My DH was stationed there while he was active duty.

izzourclue · August 2010

I'm only seeing my doctor every 4 weeks. I guess I don't understand, you are upset you won't see your doctor for 4 weeks after your u/s?

kierstensteck · August 2010

Ya, we're stationed at fort bragg. I guess I need to clarify, the last time I was my dr was a month ago, and it will be another month before i see one again. My U/S was in the radiology department and we saw only the tech. Sorry, I should have been more clear with that.

midnight*sun · August 2010

I'm high risk and since the beginning of my 2nd tri I only go in once every month. I was able to bump my 20 week appointment up a week since DH was in town, but they only did an u/s. It's normal to only go in once a month at this point. As far as being away from your family I hear ya. I'm in Alaska and my entire family lives in Oregon.

izzourclue · August 2010

I guess I wouldn't be too upset. You are really only missing one appt and you aren't really missing it because you got a thorough check of your baby. So the only thing you missed out on was one blood pressure and urine check. But I'm not in the military or married to military so maybe there are other things that are making your medical care harder.

frostyprincess24 · August 2010

I can sympathize with the distance, DH and I are stationed in CA and my family is in MD. As for the appointments, I can only suggest calling the clinic to double check if maybe you need to have one in addition to the U/S. We don't have a hospital at our clinic so I have to go to an outside OB and am having an appt. with my OB in addition to the U/S this month. Also if you are really unhappy with the care you are receiving go speak with the tricare patient advocate about changing to an outside provider.

melaniecriswell · August 2010

Hey, I'm at Fort Bragg too, after my initial consult of finding out I was pregnant I had my first appointment at 10-12 weeks (ended up being 10 for me) and then they saw me again 6 weeks later (16 weeks) , and told me to schedule the u/s for 20 weeks, but to make my next dr appointment for 6 weeks out (22 weeks) to make sure they had time to go over the results of the u/s before my appointment. I've never been pregnant before but it seems pretty normal, while I was waiting for my doctor at my last appointment they even had a poster/chart on the wall explaining when they'd have each appointments and when they'd become more frequent.

I understand being away from family, my family is all on the west coast, and my husband is going to a school in GA until Christmas time (I stayed here because he'll be coming back and I didn't really want to move while 9 months pregnant). I wouldn't worry too much. You should be able to request a specific doctor or midwife though if you have a preference, it all just depends on when you make your appointment. At least they always ask me who I want to make the appointment with.

I hope everything works out, and know you're not the only one out here due in January!

*AirForceWife* · August 2010

You're not the only one. TRICARE Prime recipient here and basically the same sort of situation, but I didn't think anything of it. I guess the spread is a little less (6 weeks), but only because they squeezed me in to keep me with the midwife I wanted to keep seeing, otherwise it would have been later. I had an appointment August 5th up in OB, go down to radiography/ultrasound for the anatomy scan on August 31st, and go back up to OB on Sept. 17th. So, I had a ~16w and won't go back in until ~22w. Gotta love Tricare and the MTFs! =P

JPed* · August 2010

I don't understand why you don't just switch to Tricare Standard.

krista613 · August 2010

JPed*:

I don't understand why you don't just switch to Tricare Standard.

this! it's not hard to do. and maternity care is still free and contrary to popular belief, you are not locked into standard for a year if your husband is e4 or below. and even if you are the co pays are not that bad, they are the same as any other health insurance.

*AirForceWife* · August 2010

krista613:
contrary to popular belief, you are not locked into standard for a year if your husband is e4 or below.

REALLY?!?! I've heard good things about our MTF so I have no reason to try to switch, but I was told numerous times it locked you into standard for a year.

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