Any Military Wives Knowledgeable About Tricare?

J.,

I'm in the same situation and have been doing some research about it. The midwife clinic at Depaul currently does not take tricare prime. They are having an internal meeting this month, so that may change by next month. I'm not pregnant yet either, so I'm going to wait until next month and see if their poclicy changes. Hopefully it will. The only issue with prime is that fewer dr.'s will take us because tricare pays them less than it costs to take care of us, which makes us have fewer selections and I believe, in general, that the more qualified doctors don't take tricare prime. Standard has a higher deductable. It really doesn't make that much differnce with the pregnancy, but if you had to go to the emergency room you are responsible for the bill, I think up to 1000.00. That's a chunck of change for us. You can call tricare and they will talk to you about it and answer any questions that you have. They also have a booklet online. Hope this helps.

I am not sure how it all works with Tricare but I do know I have standard and when my son was born in 2004 I went to a civilian Dr and delivered at Virginia Beach General and all I ever paid was $50 for the hospital $25 for me and $25 for my baby (that I ended up getting back). Hope that helps and Good Luck.

Sorry to be short, but we were going to have to give birth at the naval hospital with our first born, but we didn't want it and asked how to get out of it, they said we would have to switch insurance, so we did, so its possible.
Just make sure to see who covers the switch.

I refuse to birth at NMCP again. They refused to listen to me when I told them my water wasn't broken and induced me without checking at 37 weeks.

With this pregnancy, I'm opting to have a homebirth. Since the military does not provide that service, I'm getting a referral to a civilian midwife that does that service. I'm staying on Prime and TriCare should reimburse most of the costs.

If you don't want to do something like that, you can drop down to Standard and see whoever you like. Some places you'll have to pay out of pocket and submit the paperwork to get your money back. I believe the midwives at DePaul work this way.

Third option is to hold off on prenatal care for a few months and hope that they are full. If you're low risk, it's might be worth it. They don't really do anything the first couple of months and prenatals are easy to find.

You can switch to Standard at any point in time that you'd like and see a civilian. Your insurance carrier isn't changing, only your doctor and your plan. The only thing is you have to wait a year before going back to Prime.