Tri Care for Life

[Challenger]

Will be moving to TV from Maryland shortly. Have the best medical coverage imaginable with Tri Care for Life through the USFamily Health Plan through John's Hopkins hospital and their state wide system of primary care docs. Having some trepedations about care in Florida.

Any comments from Tri Care for Life users in TV would be welcomed. How does it work there and how satisfied are you?

[barb1191]

Welcome, welcome to Paradise...

Yes without a doubt, TriCare4Life is excellent coverage and no problem in TV here as we find it to be widely accepted.

Both hubby Bill and I have continuing serious medical conditions and have never had a problem with providers accepting the prime insurer Medicare and then the secondary TriCare4Life coverage. It's excellent!!

Here's a link that may help for TriCare4Life....

www.TRICARE4u.com

barb1191

[aljetmet]

Is this for military folks only?

[batman911]

aljetmet,

Yes.

[Bryan]

With Tricare For Life (TFL) I presume you are a retiree, over 65, and have Medicare. As you know, TFL requires that you have Medicare as you primary insurance and they are secondary insurers.

You will have only one minor administrative problem here with TFL. Medicare and TFL both want you to just have your providers bill Medicare. Medicare will "take care of" sending the "co-pay" part of your bill to Tricare and then Tricare will pay it. The admin problem is that providers "insist" on knowing who your secondary coverage is with and will sometimes try to bill TFL directly. This always screws up the system a little. Not your problem but it does cause some extra paperwork to flow sometimes.

Other than that, TFL is always accepted where ever Medicare is accepted here in TV so that is virtually everywhere.

I certainly agree with you, the combination of Medicare and TFL is probably the best health insurance available. I could not be more pleased. Now if only we could get dental coverage that worked as well!

[Challenger]

Feeling more comfortable with every post. Thanks- wish we could pull the trigger today.

[Forsyth]

Will be moving to TV from Maryland shortly. Have the best medical coverage imaginable with Tri Care for Life through the USFamily Health Plan through John's Hopkins hospital and their state wide system of primary care docs. Having some trepedations about care in Florida.

Any comments from Tri Care for Life users in TV would be welcomed. How does it work there and how satisfied are you?

WHAT A SURPRISE YOU ARE ABOUT TO HAVE!!! We also had Johns Hopkins Family Health Plan. I am only 55, not on Medicare. We had great insurance, great physicians, great specialists, great hospital resources. We come down here to Florida and find that MOST physicians don't take Tricare, the radiology facility is in Belleview, you'll have to travel to most of your physicians in Leesburg or Ocala or Orlando and you will end up at some of the worst offices you've ever been in. One office was old and smelled like mildew, the doctor was simply elderly. Our "gatekeeper", our Tricare assigned PMD. is almost incompetent and we're thinking about switching, my husband and I end up laughing under our breaths before we get out of the office. One hint: before you leave Maryland - have a check-up and get ALL your medicines refilled. You are going to have a real disapointment when you arrive here. I have. Sorry for the Gray Cloud.

[kb8tpw]

My wife and I are both on Medicare and Tri-Care for life. I am a diabetic, she has serious heart problems. We have been here since May, had all of our prescriptions filled with a 90 day supply before we left Ohio and have had absolutely zero problems. Granted the facilities and staff we have encountered were not what we left, but so what, times and places change and we've adapted. I am awaiting the new VA facility to open and I will probably rely on them for some of my care, but that has not been an issue yet, though I am scheduled to see an opthamologist for my diabetic retinopathy, which I relied on the VA for previously. I think Tri-Care Dental is a bit expensive and we have not made that transition yet, so we'll see how that goes. I see local firms I have dealt with in Ohio, so anticipate that being transparent as well. In my opinion the combination of Medicare and Tr-Care is about as good as it gets and I'm not considering additional supplemental insurance such as AARP and the like.

I was in the Villages Regional Hospital a year ago (signed my sales contract while a patient) and that experience was not a completely positive one, but having had the experience I won't let there be a re-occurence.

That's my 2 cents.

[pooh]

WHAT A SURPRISE YOU ARE ABOUT TO HAVE!!! We also had Johns Hopkins Family Health Plan. I am only 55, not on Medicare. We had great insurance, great physicians, great specialists, great hospital resources. We come down here to Florida and find that MOST physicians don't take Tricare, the radiology facility is in Belleview, you'll have to travel to most of your physicians in Leesburg or Ocala or Orlando and you will end up at some of the worst offices you've ever been in. One office was old and smelled like mildew, the doctor was simply elderly. Our "gatekeeper", our Tricare assigned PMD. is almost incompetent and we're thinking about switching, my husband and I end up laughing under our breaths before we get out of the office. One hint: before you leave Maryland - have a check-up and get ALL your medicines refilled. You are going to have a real disapointment when you arrive here. I have. Sorry for the Gray Cloud.

Goodness, I've not had that experience in the 4 years we've been here. Had Tri-Care and now that we are 65, have Tri-Care for Life. Have a GP, Dermatologist, Urologist, and others accept Tri-Care and TCFL with no problem and all are local. I'm sorry you've encountered difficulties.

[Russ_Boston]

WHAT A SURPRISE YOU ARE ABOUT TO HAVE!!! We also had Johns Hopkins Family Health Plan. I am only 55, not on Medicare. We had great insurance, great physicians, great specialists, great hospital resources. We come down here to Florida and find that MOST physicians don't take Tricare, the radiology facility is in Belleview, you'll have to travel to most of your physicians in Leesburg or Ocala or Orlando and you will end up at some of the worst offices you've ever been in. One office was old and smelled like mildew, the doctor was simply elderly. Our "gatekeeper", our Tricare assigned PMD. is almost incompetent and we're thinking about switching, my husband and I end up laughing under our breaths before we get out of the office. One hint: before you leave Maryland - have a check-up and get ALL your medicines refilled. You are going to have a real disapointment when you arrive here. I have. Sorry for the Gray Cloud.

From reading the other posts I think you should look around again for care? Perhaps things have changed.

[BUC]

I have Tri care prime, we get our meds through express scpits a 30 day supply through the mail. 90 day suppy generic 3.00 and name brank for 9.00
check it out it's a good deal. I give 450.00 per year and I just have it taken out of my retirement check 37.50 per month, Doc's co-pay only 12.00, hospirtal 100% I'm really glad I stay for twentyin the NAVY

[barb1191]

In TriCare4Life we used to get our 90 day supply of scripts for free from a local military base in MA and here in TV, we could get our free scripts at McDill AFB in Tampa but we found the long drive there wasn't worth it.

We now use XPress Scripts which is by mail under our military TCFL which is working out very well. We get a 90 day supply of each generic script for a total of $3 for the 90 days and free postage. This is working out very well for us.

My husband signed up for the VA Clinic here in TV and is extremely impressed with their services. One doesn't have to wait for the NEW clinic to open to register. I believe that in today's newspaper it was mentioned that the office is moving to Wedgewood Rd off Rte 466 (near the Southern Trace Plaza) until the new clinic opens.

[nkrifats]

Thanks to each of you for the information. I will be full time next July and am Tricare for Life and Medicare.

BUC
I am very glad I stuck around for 24. Has really been a blessing on the medical side. Retired DSC

[cashman]

Committing to anything for life is like living in Maryland.

What will you do when winter comes.

[Bryan]

Forsyth was not talking about Tricare For Life (TFL) but basic Tricare or some derivation thereof (Tricare Prime?). I think he is correct is that a lot less doctors accept Tricare as your primary medical insurance than many other insurance plans. A little due dilligance should turn up reasonable doctors in TV that accept Tricare but you will have to ask and look and work at it a little.

Tricare For Life (TFL), on the other hand, is accepted where ever Medicare is accepted. In actuality, some that accept Medicare do not even know that they also accept TFL because Medicare makes the billing to TFL so transparent.