For military folks, you\u2019ll be able to relate to our story best.\u00a0 My husband is active-duty Air Force, and we are covered under Tricare.\u00a0 His dependents (the kids and myself) were enrolled in Tricare Prime meaning our coverage was free but we had to see a military primary care manager.\u00a0 I always took the kids to the base every time they needed a checkup.\u00a0 It was nice because it was free, but options were restricted.<\/p>\n
After my diagnosis, we had to deal with the fact that I was away from a military base and couldn\u2019t see my PCM at the base.\u00a0 The fix for that problem is to obtain a referral, but those take time and there are often delays in the communication between offices.\u00a0 So, we often showed up to the hospital at IU and had trouble with insurance.\u00a0 The first day that I showed up for my first chemo infusion, the pharmacy wouldn\u2019t bring the chemo because insurance hadn\u2019t been approved.\u00a0 Mark signed a waiver saying he would pay out-of-pocket if the insurance didn\u2019t come through.\u00a0 The cost of one chemo chair for 4 hours is approximately $28,000 dollars!\u00a0 Anyhow, Tricare Prime was a pain-in-the-butt while we kept it.<\/p>\n
Eventually, we got fed up with the referral process.\u00a0 Every appointment and every set of scans had to be approved individually, and it was difficult to keep up with the flow.\u00a0 After a few months, we switched my plan to Tricare Standard.\u00a0 Standard requires the family to pay for the first $1,000 of costs each fiscal year, but that is the cap and everything after is covered.\u00a0 It\u2019s a family cap too, so once the cumulative cost of anyone in the family reaches $1,000, everyone\u2019s is covered.\u00a0 The major benefit is that we no longer needed referrals.\u00a0 As long as Tricare was accepted by the provider, we were approved and good-to-go.\u00a0 Instantly, our insurance stresses were over.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been on Tricare Standard for about a year now, and we haven\u2019t paid a cent over the $1,000 max.\u00a0 The process couldn\u2019t be easier switching between clinics as well.\u00a0 I\u2019ve switched doctors three times since I changed to Standard, and I\u2019ve had no trouble.\u00a0 Occasionally, a bill shows up requiring a co-pay, but they are usually cleared up with one phone call.<\/p>\n
I understand that many people struggle\u00a0when dealing with the stresses of having cancer and having a difficult insurance company.\u00a0 I know there are appeal processes for those having trouble, but my recommendation is to plan ahead and make sure medical insurance is top quality in case you find yourself in a situation like this.\u00a0 You just never know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For military folks, you\u2019ll be able to relate to our story best.\u00a0 My husband is active-duty Air Force, and we are covered under Tricare.\u00a0 His dependents (the kids and myself) were enrolled in Tricare Prime meaning our coverage was free but we had to see a military primary care manager.\u00a0 I always took the kids […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":10,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-217","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P75Yu9-3v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":719,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217\/revisions\/719"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}