TRICARE

[Guest guest]

We are now retired military. While we were retired, but not yet Medicare

eligible, we had no problem at all getting medical care for ourselves or our

son. We have not been active duty for about 10 years, but we NEVER let a

refusal of refrrel stand - we always and I do mean always- challenged a

refusal if it required that we wait longer than it would take me to get an

appointment with a civilian doc. Only once did we use a Congressman - but I

believe that Congress is voted in (hired) byt the people to work for us and

I have used them when I needed to. Elie NEVER had any of his surgeries

thru the military and we were stationed in the land of OWNED BY THE NAVY -

Norfolk.

But now that we are REALLY retired - on Medicare with Tricare for Life- and

our son was converteded from Medicaid to Medicare, we have had a series of

problems. We found docs who accept Medicare, but then we started to get

bills - because when MEdicare refused to pay for physicals, blood work, and

lastly for immunizations, Tricare was supposed to pick it up. But the

billing is so confusing, the billing was done incorrectly. To make a very

long story short - our doc JUST GOT PAID for servcies rendered in MArch -

and I had to go to the office and show them how to bill under the correct

social security - my husband's- even tho the services were rendered on

family members.

How many people in a small business could wait 7 months to get payment on

accounts receivables???

Seems to me that Medicare and Tricare for Life could be simplified - I would

bet there are many people on this list who could figure out easier billing

practices for this.

--

Sara - Life is a journey- we choose the path.