Tricare People must read this.

I know, right?  Turns out they "lost" the EKG.  At first the old lady volunteer I was dealing with in medical records told me I hadn't had it done.  Then she said it just wasn't there.  Batting forth between her and a very long hold with the cardiology dept. did yield results.

They now claim they have scanned the EKG into my medical file and the old lady said she'd fax it over.  I am now waiting for a call from my WLS office confirming they have indeed received it.  Nothing yet mind you.  Fingers crossed.  I've been on this bloody phone most of the day trying to sort stuff out.

I'd need to look into Standard a bit more and see if it would work for us.  I remember at the time we didn't opt for it because the co-pays seemed higher.  And really most of my issues haven't been Tricare's fault directly but more the medical offices around here that don't seem to want to do much.

Never had the problem in VA beach.  I think it's up here in the DC area that it's more of an issue.

 I'm sorry for your experience. But with tricare you need a referral for everything. Your bariatric clinic should have already set you up for it. Least mine did. Hope the rest of your journey goes easy. 

NoooooooooooooooooooNooooooooooooooo
I'm Tricare Prime, surgery scheduled for the 20th of September and I'm just waiting for something to come and smack me. Grrrrrrrr......!!! Blue Point right? I will just fall on the ground and pitch a fit worthy of a 2-year old!

good luck and thank you for the information. I have hospital appointments tomorrow starting at 7:30am. I'm running off to check my paperwork.

Yeah, I'm with Blue Point. If you are having an endoscopy you need a separate referral for the GI people. Everyone else has been covered under the umbrella of the original approval for surgery. Are you being done in Fairfax?

The good news is it has taken less than 24 hours for the approval but my endoscopy has had to be put off (supposed to be tomorrow)

You should contact your PCP becasue Blue point will tell you it's not their job to put in for the authorization (it can only come from the PCP) Hopefully, your PCP will be more helpful. They didn't seem to understand what I needed and were at first unwilling to put it in. They finally did, but now they have misplaced the hard copy of the authorization.

I called GMA (the GI folks) in Fairfax and told them to let me know by the end of the day whether or not the authorization has been faxed to them or n ot.

Even though I am under the same Tricare Prime area, these things were a lot smoother in Va Beach. They used to send a hard copy of the authorization straight to the specialist and a copy to me. Now they do neither.


PS Let me know how you got on today. Going by your location, I guess you go to the Woodbridge area. (I'm Gainesville, so go to Fairfax)

Hey glass-it was smooth sailing!
I kept waiting for someone to say--oops we have a slight problem but that didn't happen. I ran out as quickly as I could before someone could!

As soon as I got home, the phone was ringing and I noticed the hospital and thought this is it, they caught me. It turns out that I didn't need an x-ray of my stomach but a sonogram instead. The hospital suggested I call BluePoint and ask if it would suffice, I said nope I'm coming to get one I'm just around the corner. Back into the car, zipped in, gooed up with the cold stuff and then spent what seemed like forever for the person to read the results. I kept thinking this is IT, they're calling it off.

I had the chat with the surgical person, meds are logged in along with the caveat that I'm bringing my own migraine medicine. I get the gaggers that cause me to have the R&R's which the lady said would be horrible after surgery.  She also waived off on the pregnancy test 2 days before surgery-had a hysterectomy in 94, no chance of that. So now for the pickup of the optifast, getting through the next 14 days without ripping anybody's head off. Next week starts the wedding countdown to Saturday so hopefully my face won't turn green and swivel on a stick. Why I thought this would be ok, I wish I knew oh how I wish!

I'm glad it went well for you.  I've not been put on optifast.  I thought I would but I have to do the two day fast before surgery.  LOL, don't know if that's better or not.  I was on the phone A LOT yesterday and finally got all the paperwork where it needed to be.  Thank God. 

Yeah, I did the goo thing earlier that morning.  -The ultrasound that looks at your pancreas and gall bladder.  I'm a bit confused though.  Aren't you getting an endoscopy?  That's where I ran into trouble.  This is something that Tricare said they would need a separate referral and authorization for and it's on the list of "to do's" for Dr. Moazzez.

If you haven't been put down for it, then maybe you should speak to Bluepoint.   If you have one of the other doctors at the practice, maybe he doesn't require it and it's just Moazzez.  But, we both seem to have the same insurance (unless you are standard- I'm Prime) and the same bariatric practice.  I would hate for you to go to your pre-op appointment and  have someone say, "wait, your missing something"  

At this point, you still have time to get it done in time for surgery.-If your doctor requires it.   I can't imagine me needing it done and not you because I don't have any known issues that would make me particularly required to have it done. 

Are you getting the surgery done at the Potomac hospital? I go to Innova at Fairfax and aside from paperwork issues, I like it a lot.  The nurse interview I had was with Kathy and she was really nice.  She is a 9 year post -op bypass and loving it.  I really like hearing about people who have been successful long term.

Sorry you have had a bad experience with Tricare, I guess I need to be thankful that I didn't have any problems with them at all, only needed one referral even with everything I had to have done before surgery. Glad you got it worked out and I hope you don't have any more problems.

Thanks.  I hope so to.  I even asked early on if I needed to get different authorizations for the different pre-surgery stuff and never needed it.   SOMEONE should have told me the GI was different.

I think your providers are jerking your chain, I did not have those issues, the doctors offices took care of all that bussiness, I just show up for the test.   they and I know who the customer is. ME.  AND I CAN GO ELSE WHERE.