access to military hospitals in remote locations?

[ilovelamp]

It seemed like she was just wondering for her own peace of mind in case something happened. No biggie in my opinion. Especially if it were an emergency. I would hope they would treat her if the local hospital couldn't.

[audette]

Jul 26, 2012 7:44:49 GMT -5 fuddyduddy said:

For those of you who stated that military hospitals are not equipped to handle private insurance billing, this says otherwise (under "Third Party Collection"): www.med.navy.mil/sites/usnhguam/Patients/Pages/HealthServices.aspx

There would need to be some form of billings department - when a dependent is dual insured (ie: from their own job), then Tricare is the secondary insurer, and the base clinic/hospital that treats the dependent needs to be able to send bills to the primary insurance company.

Of course, with their own insurance, dependents are not limited to being seen by base clinics/hospitals, so this might not come up too often.

[CloudBee]

Jul 26, 2012 9:27:01 GMT -5 ilovelamp said:

It seemed like she was just wondering for her own peace of mind in case something happened. No biggie in my opinion. Especially if it were an emergency. I would hope they would treat her if the local hospital couldn't.

I've seen the Coast Guard come and airlift people off of cruises I've been on (2 separate times) in both Central and South America. I've seen the military offer care in those extremes, so I was trying to get a handle on what the norm was for civilian care.

I'm not putting myself in a position where I'm at this huge risk for needing to utilize someone else's resources. We just travel a lot, and I am always genuinely curious if military hospitals ever treat those who are away from home.

Obviously I couldn't just walk onto the base. In my mind, I thought maybe if someone had a brain aneurysm and was at a rinky dink hospital in a remote location, the local hospital might call the military base if they were an American.

Thanks to everyone who offered genuine insight. I really appreciate it.

Again, my family has a very strong connection to the military. Both my husband and I come from military families. My intentions were to get simple questions answered, not to take advantage of the system, take resources away from any of you, or to appear entitled.

[Beeps (WOT?*)]

fwiw, I "know" CloudBee from the Nest (she had a different name there before she became CB) and she is a sweet person that a lot of people like and respect. She is absolutely not one that takes advantage from what I have seen in the past; it's usually the opposite. She also has a very serious heart condition that has required some serious intervention in the past and I for one don't find it alarming that she'd be looking to see if she has access to any medical treatment/the best available based on her medical history, which of course isn't widely known unless one lurked on or frequented her home board. She's just asking an innocent question that I am sure a lot of civilians abroad have had run through their minds, and she's trying to cover her bases.

As the former spouse of a disabled veteran (married while he was AD and when disabled) who is now an unrelated civilian due to our divorce, I have questions occasionally about eligibility for my children and even sometimes myself via my children (access to the PX when with them, hospital care, etc., particularly post 9/11) and what services I might be able to help them get when their father is less than amenable at times, such as when my son's ID expired and we lived 1,500 miles from his dad and nowhere near a base.

Sorry if there appeared to be any animus, CloudBee. I'm not a regular here but I do post on occasion and I'm rather saddened by the defensiveness and "entitlement" that came through in a couple of responses. The ladies here are generally pretty level-headed, positive and helpful.

And also fwiw, the military hospitals I've been in have been in no way, shape or form examples of shining perfection and top-notch care to the exclusion of the other facilities near them. They may have very well trained staff, but the equipment isn't generally state of the art, new and shiny. The budget money is generally spent elsewhere.

[basilosaurus]

Jul 26, 2012 9:12:01 GMT -5 beans said:

Wow cloudbee, I'm sorry you're getting such seemingly hostile responses here... I thought your question wasn't too crazy out of line, and to me doesn't even seem all that entitled or unreasonable to ask, especially if you are not all that aware of military medical care, or had an experience where your dad was able to use the system previously as a contractor or whatever.

I don't think the question was out of line, but I think she's oddly defensive. Really, I just gave information to the question. Apparently, she takes offense at my pampering comment, when I thought it was conciliatory and funny. Honestly, I probably would choose a civilian hospital for the likely better cushiness factor. This is not an insult!

Tone, internet, not good combinations.

I'm pretty inclined to not be as nice, though, when someone gets defensive when I consider it a disproportionate response. Apparently we're shouting dissent. Right. And pointing out American privilege, or at least the appearance of, is somehow akin to calling your mama a whore. The internet is serious business, people!

[basilosaurus]

Oh, and as someone with a military ID, I still didn't have privileges at the clinics in Korea. I had to go pay out of pocket at the local Korean hospital. Maybe that's why I don't consider a military clinic as available to any American citizen. I would have been stabilized in an emergency, but that's it, and only barely because they didn't have emergency care.

[Beeps (WOT?*)]

Jul 26, 2012 18:50:11 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Oh, and as someone with a military ID, I still didn't have privileges at the clinics in Korea. I had to go pay out of pocket at the local Korean hospital. Maybe that's why I don't consider a military clinic as available to any American citizen. I would have been stabilized in an emergency, but that's it, and only barely because they didn't have emergency care.

Really? See, that's something I didn't know. I assume if/when daughter and GS go to Japan they'll have access as dependents because he'll be stationed there? We only did stateside before XH was disabled. He only hit the Philippines and Hong Kong and floated in the Indian Ocean for about four months during his deployment so I never did get the nuances of a lot beyond birthin' babies. ") I can tell you aaaalll about the bennies of civilian v military (military won out in this one. That was the only civilian hospital I begged to be released from so I could go home and eat. Worst food I have ever encountered in my life. And it cost more because I had a co-pay to deal with that beat out my food costs in the military hospital.

I was skimming for content rather than reading for tone so if it fell in tone-deaf eyes, my apologies. I don't think it was you that was raising hackles though, iirc.

As for billing, I worked in legal for a number of years and there were several times our cases were subrogated by TriCare, VA or other providers and we reimbursed expenses from settlements or insurance payouts, so I would assume there is a mechanism for doing so.

[basilosaurus]

You have to be command sponsored to have access to clinics. I wasn't. Technically, I could have gone space-a, but they told me they have never allowed a space-a visit, so I didn't bother. I couldn't even get them to sign my paperwork for going to another oconus location.

If your daughter is married by the time they go to Japan and is command sponsored, they'll have access. There are weirdnesses with getting scheduled, though. Like, at our dental clinic, we could only be seen once a year, in the month of the sponsor's birthday. And then they entirely stopped that for dependents unless they proved they needed cleanings more than once annually, like if they had a history of cavities. It all depends on what capacity they have at the time.

I got the impression that overseas as far more picky about allowing only dependents. Our clinic wouldn't even treat the dods teachers. They pretty much had no way of working with anyone who wasn't ad or dependent, at least from what they told me. I'm sure that varies by location, though.

[dancingpanda]

Jul 26, 2012 19:39:56 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

You have to be command sponsored to have access to clinics. I wasn't. Technically, I could have gone space-a, but they told me they have never allowed a space-a visit, so I didn't bother. I couldn't even get them to sign my paperwork for going to another oconus location.

If your daughter is married by the time they go to Japan and is command sponsored, they'll have access. There are weirdnesses with getting scheduled, though. Like, at our dental clinic, we could only be seen once a year, in the month of the sponsor's birthday. And then they entirely stopped that for dependents unless they proved they needed cleanings more than once annually, like if they had a history of cavities. It all depends on what capacity they have at the time.

I got the impression that overseas as far more picky about allowing only dependents. Our clinic wouldn't even treat the dods teachers. They pretty much had no way of working with anyone who wasn't ad or dependent, at least from what they told me. I'm sure that varies by location, though.

Sibil is correct you have to be Command Sponsored to go overseas, and a lot goes into this. Where we were at in Japan, DoD teachers could be seen on base if there was anvailability. One of the biggest factors is that you don't have any medical problems that they can't treat to go to overseas, if you have a condition they can't take care of you can't go. Now, the service member may still have to go. Not all military hospitals can take care of all medical problems. Killercupcake talked about how 29 Palms couldn't do everything, many MTFs overseas are similar.

My understanding about non military being able to use the base hospitals, is if they can stabilize the person because they were closest (I know it happened a few times in 29 Palms) in the event of an emergency, then be moved to the nearest hospital asap. But if something were to happen to CB in Guam emergency personnel will probably take her to the local hospital, vs the MTF. But it will be the emergency vehicles deciding where she goes, not her or her dh.

There is the possibility that the MTF on Guam may not have the capabilities of taking care of CB's conditions.