Originally Posted by
Jetjok
Dakota,
You're not the first to say that "many doctors will not accept patients that use TriCare." I'm wondering if it's a regional thing, as here in the North East, I've never had a problem with my health care providers accepting TriCare. I'm retired (over 65) and as such have Medicare and TriCare-For-Life, and I can think of only a few times, when we (my wife and I) actually had to pay an out-of-pocket medical co-pay. And believe me when I tell you that you don't spend less time at the doctors as you age. I wonder what gives?
Same here in central Texas. I'm very happy with my Tricare Prime. Before I moved here, I was minutes away from a military hospital at the base from which I just retired. Upon moving, we elected to continue with Prime and bail to the FedEx plan with Standard as a secondary if things went south. We are even happier here. My PCP has an attached urgent care clinic that treats a walk-in for anything as an appointment which equals no hassles with a claim where urgent care is debatable. They also have an online referral request system and, most of the time, they don't require us to come in, they just get the referral done electronically and send us on our way to the specialist. I've been in for the standard flu, pink eye, gastro stuff etc. and it has been the $13 copay and nothing else. Knowing all this we opt out of medical but get the dental buy up and vision through FedEx. Tricare Prime cost ~$600/year for me, my wife and son. We will compare every year but it is working well for us now.