Kelly Seeks

The dust is finally starting to settle down on our pcs roller coaster ride. The boxes are almost unpacked and I’m starting to get the layout of the land. The first important step I need to take next is to set up our children’s services. But how do I do that? Well I am here to give you a little help.

If you didn’t know- once you change Tricare regions you will need to get all new prescriptions for your referrals. We went from TriWest to TriNorth, because we switched Tricare regions we have to get new referrals before our children are able to start receiving services again. Which means we had to go to our new PCM to get the new referrals to our specialists to get the new referrals for our services and prescriptions.

I would suggest calling to make a appointment with your child’s PCM ASAP. If you are unable to get a realistic appointment day scheduled, try asking if they have a clinic case manager or speaking with someone at the base patient advocacy department. For example, we arrive mid July. We were given an appointment date of mid August. Bug has a rare medical condition that requires mail ordered supplies and medication. We would be out of those items if we waiter until the system worked. Therefore, I had to call the base patient advocacy who informed me they actually have clinic case managers. The case manager was able to get us next day appointments. Now all our referrals to their new specialists have been placed and we even have scheduled a few appointments with the specialists.

It really just takes time and patience. One last piece of advice is to alert all parties involved of your move. A month prior to our pcs I informed the medical supply company that we would be moving. They were then able to alert the new branch of our incoming and our needs. This worked well as the new branch called us and set up a delivery before we even seen by the specialist. They also called our insurance to see what needed to be done on their end to speed the process along.