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How do I know who my LOs pediatrician will be before she even arrives?

arcook0307arcook0307 member
in Military Families
I am giving birth at a birthing center.  We are required to tell them who our pediatrician is so the baby can be released.  Since I am new to military life and have had all my experiences with civilian healthcare, I have no idea how to go about taking care of this scenario.
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Re: How do I know who my LOs pediatrician will be before she even arrives?

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    ladybugpjbladybugpjb member

    I gave birth at a big MTF, and DS could either be seen at the pedi dept. at that MTF or another military clinic in the area. We're on tricare prime and didn't have the option to go off base.

    LO didn't get assigned a pedi until we enrolled him in Tricare.

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    arcook0307arcook0307 member
    imageladybugpjb:

    LO didn't get assigned a pedi until we enrolled him in Tricare.

    This concerns me since they said we couldn't leave the hospital until the ped called to release the baby.

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    meltoinemeltoine member

    Has this birthing center never had a Tricare patient before? Tricare won't assign a doctor to someone who, according to their records, doesn't exist. LO will not be assigned a pedi until s/he is registered in DEERS and enrolled in TRICARE. 

    Go to your Tricare rep and talk to him/her. If need be, have them call your birthing center to explain things to your doctor or midwife.  

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    SmurphetteSmurphette member
    Your LO will be covered under Prime for the first 60 days and with that you can take them to whatever pediatrician you'd like.  You can find a civilian pediatrician who accepts Tricare that you're comfortable with (by interviews or simply by recommendation from friends or your OB) and they can be your child's doctor for that initial 60 days with no co-pays or anything necessary.  That is what we did with my oldest son and we ended up choosing to switch him to Standard at the end of the 60 days so that he could continue to see the same doctor because we liked her and the convenience of her having evening and weekend hours.
    Mama to three boys Nathan Reese 9.05 Conrad Elijah 5.08 Ezekiel Drake "Zeke" 4.12
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    amoerizzleamoerizzle
    imageSmurphette:
    Your LO will be covered under Prime for the first 60 days and with that you can take them to whatever pediatrician you'd like.  You can find a civilian pediatrician who accepts Tricare that you're comfortable with (by interviews or simply by recommendation from friends or your OB) and they can be your child's doctor for that initial 60 days with no co-pays or anything necessary.  That is what we did with my oldest son and we ended up choosing to switch him to Standard at the end of the 60 days so that he could continue to see the same doctor because we liked her and the convenience of her having evening and weekend hours.
     Just a quick question. I'm a newbie to the military life, so don't have it all figured out yet. Even though the baby is covered under Prime for 60 days, it can still be seen off-post? I thought Prime only covered the MFT...MTF...whichever acronym it is ;)
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    JKM416JKM416 member

    I gave birth to DD and will to #3 in civilian hospitals (though both are more familiar with Tricare than your center seems to be).  Whenever I've had to fill out forms before the birth asking for the pediatrician's name, I've just put the name and phone number of the military clinic (MTF) where they'll get assigned, and no one has ever questioned it.  My kids have always been on Prime, but DD (and now #3) got seen by the civilian pediatrician on call at the hospital that day who discharged her with no problem.  We never saw the guy again, but because she was healthy and we had another pediatrician (clinic) already on record as lined up for her, that was enough for the hospital.

    If you've been assigned a military MTF of your own, your baby would most likely go there, so that makes it easy.  However, depending on where you live and the distance to your options, you may have a choice and can do a little more research.  Once you determine where your baby is going to be seen, you can call the clinic (if it's military) and ask what the procedure would be for getting your baby discharged would be.  Maybe just the head doctor on call that day would do it?  Maybe they'd consult via phone with the hospital's civilian on-call pediatrician just as a formality?

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