AD/Res/Retired/Med Discharged/Dependents/Tricare & Infamous VA

Hi MILCHK.

I'm in Ohio, retired AF spouse, Tricare Prime, and was also active duty AF myself for 4 years.

My cancer center is great on base.  I've only had Tricare issues with continuity of care.  My PS moved (He's active duty) to Texas and I had to fly there and stay for almost three weeks at my own expense.  When I checked with Tricare they said, "We don't care about your continuity of care.  You're prime.  You get what we give you."

Despite my stage, first Tricare, and then once my hospital got its own machine, I have never had a PET scan.  They all simply REFUSED to do it.  Now, after all the rads I took, it's kinda pointless.

Hello, I'm new to this room but I have Tricare Standard and I absolutely loved it....until i was diagnosed that is!  Tricare stopped covering BRCA testing as of Jan 01, 2012 so I'm not too happy about that.  

I've been on both Prime and Standard but one day I sat down and did the math and it was much cheaper for me to go Standard.  I really thought I was paying less with Prime but I wasn't.  I've been back on Standard for many years now and I don't have to deal with authorizations, copay's ( i do have 20% coinsurance) but the family OOP is $3000 which is met easily with BC treatment. Having a PPO gives you so much more freedom over an HMO (Prime)

Has anyone had their BRCA testing covered through the VA?  Either way it all goes to Myriad but I'm curious if it will be covered if it's ordered by the VA?  If it is, i'm going to have to make myself an appt.  

Hope everyone is doing well and if you have any questions about Tricare feel free to ask and i'll be more than happy to answer if i can.   

Tammy - I'm pretty sure tricare started covering the BRCA test again and retro'd back to may (could be off on dates). I also think they now agreed to the oncotype also. I'll try to find the article again.