julie

[anonymous]

Hey

I believe that i saw in one of your posts something about your husband going to a military facility...? i'm getting married in a couple of months to my boyfriend of 2 & 1/2 years who has CF. I am a commissioned officer in the service & when we get married he will be eligible for my health insurance benefits. I guess my question is - how does your husband get seen by a military hospital & if he is a dependent is it "easy" to get adult CF'ers into specialty clinics? I'm just trying to make the transition in insurance coverage as easy as possible for my boyfriend. Right now he has Cobra & pays a ton - but I'm concerned that with Tri-Care (my military coverage) he won't be able to continue to go to his adult CF clinic.

Any comments?

 

[julie]

Here's how the tricare works....

-Depending on where you are stationed, he will need to see a primary care doctor for the purpose of getting a referral to a CF specialist (NOTE: press the doctor that a pulmonologist is NOT ok, it must be a CF specialist!)

-Make sure that your husband is on Tricare Prime (you WILL have to enroll him) or if you are in a remote area, it is Tricare Prime Remote (they can tell you based on your duty zip code, but if you are anywhere near a hospital or military clinic, it WON'T be remote, it will be Tricare Prime)

-If there is no military CF specialist in the area (they generally determine the "area" is 30-50 miles) they can disengage your husband and send him to a CF clinic in the area that will take the Tricare insurance. You might want to talk to his current CF clinic (if that is where you are stationed, will be staying for a while) to see if they take tricare. If they don't, you can request that they accept it or contract with tricare.

We see a CF military doctor (mind you Mark is his first CF patient and he now has a total of 3) and it is a great situation because Mark loves the doctor, and the doctor has a lot of conversation with the pediatric CF clinic (which is just downstairs) but once a year we also have Mark seen by the CF clinic at UCSD where they have a social worker, dietician, labs, respiratory, nurse.... all at one visit. The doctor agreed that he would allow him to be referred out once a year (because we requested it).

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions. You can email me at division902@hotmail.com if you like.

Also, while I am on the tricare/military subject, if you and your [future] husband are ever considering children (and he is one of the CFers that falls into the "infertile" category), the military (Navy and Army branches for sure, air force??????) has IVF programs established with other civilian facilities to offer the cost of IVF at a reduced rate. It is not free, but it is less expensive that way. Also, many military urologists do sperm retrieval surgeries and if they are done at a military facility-they are FREE. Most civilian doctors charge $2500-4500 for retrievals (such as the MESA retrieval). If you haven't seen the website already, check out <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.cysticfibrosismaleinfertility.com">www.cysticfibrosismaleinfertility.com</a>

Take care and feel free to email