I'm Katie, wife to Andrew who is an officer in the Army. We're at Fort Bragg until next year. We're originally from upstate NY. This is our last full month of deployment!
I know I've posted a lot about this but I wanted to add some stuff. All the things I described that you can do with Standard you can also do with Prime. It just costs more. If you have Prime, I think the per person deductible if you see a civilian doc without a referral is $300 and the copay/cost share is 50%. As long as it's a covered treatment, TC will pay at least 50% of the TC allowable charge. Also, with Standard you can see docs at the MTF for free on a space available basis. The way that worked in Hawaii was that I would have to call around noon each day to see if they had any openings. I couldn't make an appointment ahead of time. They rarely had openings so it was usually a waste of time but you do have that option. Here at Camp LeJeune I've been told they don't have any space available so I can't even get in on a cancellation.
We've always been on Prime. Our docs are all out in town, and I've never had a problem with a referral. When we've needed one, the PCM set it up and we went to the specialist w/out a glitch. I've never paid a dime for healthcare other than my homebirth and dental expenses.
Originally Posted by michelleklu
I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day! We're still transitioning in Fort Drum. I was hoping someone here could explain the benefits and downfalls of Tricare standard, prime, and the US Family Health Plan (mostly this part). I read their flyer and information on their site but I have different questions.
Would it be easier to find a pediatrician who would be okay with non-vaxing through the US Family Health Plan or do all the Tricare programs pretty much have the same network of doctors?
Which program would cover the most for homebirth?
Is it really a lot easier to deal with referrals and emergency visits through the USFHP?
How would I go about finding a holistic dentist or would Tricare cover anything like that?
I had US Family Health Plan when I lived in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I LOVED it. So much better, and my favorite part was that they covered Chiropractor visit. It was a limited amount per year, but STILL! I used them for all their visits. I found so many civilian doctors who accepted it, and I found a fantastic Pedi in Mass who was perfectly fine with us not vaxing. I don't know anything about homebirth. I didn't have any referrals while on it, so I can't help you with that either. I did have two ER visits without any issue whatsoever. I definitely recommend them and wouldn't hesitate to switch back if were ever in their area again.
Just skimmed the posts, sorry for not having more to say, but I just want to sub.
Congratulations, Tabitha on your pregnancy! How exciting!
We are 7 months into our deployment and have R&R coming up in a few weeks and we are all very happy about that and looking forward to it. This deployment has gone by pretty fast, but it helps that I've been so busy.
hi! i'm new here. my name is kristin and i'm married to kevin. he is in the air force and we are currently stationed at pope afb, nc. we have 3 little ones...kaylynn(3.5), jackson(2), and carsyn(8 months). i'm hoping it's ok if i jump in here!
Originally Posted by wifey2kevin
hi! i'm new here. my name is kristin and i'm married to kevin. he is in the air force and we are currently stationed at pope afb, nc. we have 3 little ones...kaylynn(3.5), jackson(2), and carsyn(8 months). i'm hoping it's ok if i jump in here!
welcome! my family is at Pope right now too, although we live off base.
Originally Posted by MarineWife
Just checked to make sure before I gave a figure. The catastrophic cap for Standard is what I thought, $1000/fiscal year/per family.
OMG I wish I knew that before!
Sounds like we'll be moving over to Standard then!
Originally Posted by justKate
OMG I wish I knew that before!
Sounds like we'll be moving over to Standard then!
And the thing about that is that it includes your usual deductible and all copays/cost shares for doc visits, labs and scripts. If you had been on Standard while you were pg, all of your costs for your prenatal care and birth would've gone toward your catastrophic cap. If your DD was born in the same fiscal year, you probably wouldn't have owed much, if anything, for her NICU stay.
Originally Posted by MarineWife
And the thing about that is that it includes your usual deductible and all copays/cost shares for doc visits, labs and scripts. If you had been on Standard while you were pg, all of your costs for your prenatal care and birth would've gone toward your catastrophic cap. If your DD was born in the same fiscal year, you probably wouldn't have owed much, if anything, for her NICU stay.
Alright, that's it. MW, I'm adopting you as my mentor for all such issues! See what happens when you're helpful? More responsibility and nothing it in for you....
Originally Posted by justKate
Alright, that's it. MW, I'm adopting you as my mentor for all such issues! See what happens when you're helpful? More responsibility and nothing it in for you....
That's what I tell my dh when he complains about being named the officer of whatever. The more you do the more people expect from you.
Originally Posted by ~Katie~
If it happened today it likely won't make the news for a while, they're really slow about putting stuff in the news if it ends up there at all. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.
it happened mother's day - still no word. crime scene tape still up. i'm sure something awful happened
In case any of the Bragg/Pope ladies are interested, the Fort Bragg Le Leche League group is meeting tomorrow (Friday) morning at Nijmegen Neighborhood Center, 2 Douve Pl, Fort Bragg from 10-11:30. Come on over and talk about breastfeeding! I think the meeting is part 1 this month.
Tricare Standard Question ~ for all of you mamas in the know. I switched to Tricare Standard so that I could give birth at a birthing center. The birthing center takes Standard, but they still want me to pay $1600 upfront for the birth. Does this sound right to you? If my cap is a $1000, then how do I go around this? Do I just tell them to bill Tricare? I'm afraid that if I pay out the $1600, then I'll never see my money again.
Originally Posted by BaMo Tricare Standard Question ~ for all of you mamas in the know. I switched to Tricare Standard so that I could give birth at a birthing center. The birthing center takes Standard, but they still want me to pay $1600 upfront for the birth. Does this sound right to you? If my cap is a $1000, then how do I go around this? Do I just tell them to bill Tricare? I'm afraid that if I pay out the $1600, then I'll never see my money again.
TIA for any help or insight!
Call Tricare and ask how much they pay for a birthing center birth and how much your share will be.
We FINALLY got the news we've been waiting for about DH's job. We're going back to NY in August next year, the Syracuse area. DH will have a job with his NG unit with the same pay since they have a slot for him (thank, gah!) and will be deploying again in early 2012. But, we'll be a lot closer to family so that will make life easier. He won't be allowed to go to the captain's course until 2013 when he gets back from his deployment, but after that he can decide whether he wants to stay in as active duty or get out. We'll have to figure out what to do for a house since we'll be in a high buy area, I don't know how I feel about buying a house but I want to be in a safe, family friendly location.
Katie ~ Sounds like you are happy about that. Yay!
My dh told just told me he's going to have to stay in OK for a week longer than originally planned. He's taking an Army course and, apparently, the Marines have an extra week of training. They usually get it done sometime during the regular course time but this time they won't get to it until after his course is over. We had planned a week-long trip starting 5 days after his original date to be home. Now that has to be canceled. Luckily, my mom reserved two weeks for her timeshare so we will still be able to go. It will just be about a week later. (hopefully).
I think at this point I'm just happy he'll still have a job. My FIL told DH that somebody told him (you know how that goes) that he could still stay active duty (His NG unit told him he couldn't) but I don't know how true that is. I know DH is still thinking about it, the big reason being housing. I like the current timeline with his NG unit, and then being able to start from scratch once he's done there. It will be a lot easier on me to be closer to family during a deployment, only 5 hours from my DH's family (who I'm closer to) and about 2 hours from my brother. The only thing I'm really nervous about is buying a house knowing that we'll be moving again in a couple of years, I know nothing about the home buying process.
Hi, my name is Trina. We moved to the Fort Lewis area in April 09. I have 2 little boys (8 and 4). I homeschool them. Currently I am working as a Holistic Doula and was trained by Whapio Diane Bartlet.
I don't live on base. We had the option to move on recently but we live out in the country and I like it where we are at. Anyway, I am just looking forward to talking to mother military wives here. I guess you all already know what it feels like to be a crunchy military wife.
Woah, I'm in the single digits before we say aloha to the rock!!!!
This time next week, we'll be in the air-- it's finally hitting me that holy cow, we're going into that odd transitional/homeless phase!!! Eeek!!! Sunday we pick up a rental car, Monday we drop DH's car at port, Tuesday they pick up HHG's, and we fly Wed/Thurs to my parentals' house in Ohio. It seems like it's going so incredibly fast!! Yikes!!
Originally Posted by ~Katie~
The only thing I'm really nervous about is buying a house knowing that we'll be moving again in a couple of years, I know nothing about the home buying process.
A lot of spouses/children stay with extended family during deployments. Maybe that would be an option for you if you stay AD. I think if you're gone more than 3 months you have to give up base housing and put all your stuff in storage but you may still actually make money off the deal because you'd still get BAH. That's the only reason I considered doing that. I've heard of people saving all their BAH during a deployment. That's a lot of money.
We've bought two houses so far. The first was great. We didn't know it when we bought it but we ended up living in it for only 2 years because dh joined the Marines. But it was in such a high-demand area and long before the bubble burst that it sold fast and we made a lot of money off it. The house we bought here is more of a problem. Lots of houses in my neighborhood are up for sale now because it's summer and everyone likes to move during the summer. They sit for months, though, and won't sell for nearly as much as was expected. Because we're afraid we may lose money if we tried to sell our house now (although now I'm not so sure based on what others in my neighborhood are asking for theirs), we've decided to stay here for at least another 3 years. If nothing else, we'll have more equity in the house. It's a little stressful. The thing that bothers me the most is that I want to really decorate the house and do some home improvements, granite counter tops and new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms, but then it doesn't seem worth it if we're just going to sell in a couple of years. I am definitely considering base housing or renting wherever we go next just for those reasons.
Sattygirl ~ I'm glad your dh got you. I was going to post that I didn't think you were being selfish at all. If I had the choice, I'd absolutely expect my dh to wait to enlist if it meant a guarantee that he'd be home for the birth and at least the first few PP weeks.
MW - If he stays AD, what will happen to him is totally up in the air. He'll most likely stay here until a slot opens up where he wants to go and he'll be deploying earlier than he would if he goes back to NY. That's why I think we're leaning toward going to NY because we at least have a plan, I know we're going to reach a point where we can start from scratch and decide where we want to go from there. We're going to spend next spring/summer visiting and doing research. There are several really good, high demand communities to live in so the ideal situation would be to buy a decent house, do some work to it, and then sell it when we go to Arizona.
We're at Lewis, too. You said you live in the country, are you in Yelm/Roy? We lived in Yelm the last time we were here, but now we're in Dupont.
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