Tricare Prime or Standard

[honeybadger]

Which do you use?

Our son and I have always been on Prime. It is looking like it will be easier to just switch to Standard for the year we'll be in Michigan. I just have no experience with if the OOP costs are astronomical or not. I don't mind paying for co-pays, etc. I just hope the "getting to choose your own doctor" is really as easy as it sounds as the area we are moving to has NO military affiliation. No big active duty presence in the state other than recruiters, I suppose.

[twoplustwo]

Because I lived almost 90 miles from post at one time, even under the Prime plan I was able to choose my own doctors. You may want to call Tricare and ask if that would be the case with you because you are so far away from a military base.
I think I am technically Prime Remote, but I am not sure.

[JakJak]

My son is on Prime and always will be because of the therapies he needs. How it works here though is that for the first 3 months of life we were required to see a civilian for his pediatrician instead of through the Naval Clinic. It was nice getting to "choose your own doctor" like you said instead of being assigned someone. Co pays for us were ridiculous for the couple of weeks we were Standard because he was being seen by a physical therapist, occupational therapist, and pediatric orthopedist. I think if your kid doesn't need more than the average doctor visits, Standard works great.

[fuddyduddy]

Prime Remote.

My husband is on recruiting duty and we are about an hour away from the closest base. We haven't had any problems with finding a doctor or our insurance coverage. In fact, I am dreading dealing with medical care on base again one day!

[honeybadger]

I think I am going to go with Standard so I don't have to wait to be assigned a PCM, then authorization for a new OB, etc and risk them not approving the OB I want to see (and have already scheduled an appt with for the 28th of June....lol).

[crimewatcher]

I was on Standard (back in Minnesota) for several months before H and I got to live together. Minnesota doesn't have any AD bases and it was super easy to find a network provider. OP it looks like you had no problems finding an OB. As for prices, I didn't pay any co pays while on Standard but did get a $25 bill for my OBGYN yearly exam. My script was $5/10ish.

[honeybadger]

Jun 13, 2012 15:41:26 GMT -5 crimewatcher said:

I was on Standard (back in Minnesota) for several months before H and I got to live together. Minnesota doesn't have any AD bases and it was super easy to find a network provider. OP it looks like you had no problems finding an OB. As for prices, I didn't pay any co pays while on Standard but did get a $25 bill for my OBGYN yearly exam. My script was $5/10ish.

:Y:

[sweethurricane]

DD1 and I are both on Standard. Your maternity care will be covered 100% so you don't need to worry about that. My cost share on DD's well visits is usually somewhere between $12-20 depending on how much they do (the one year visit was 5 shots and bloodwork so that was slightly higher than most). I love being able to choose our own doctors.