Tag Archives: TRICARE

Tell Us About Your Visit…

military, oyd rants,

I receive these great surveys after every doctor’s appointment any of us have with Medical here on Post. It is a survey from TRICARE asking us to please rate our visit with Dr. X on such and such date.

I received one for every visit I have with my regular doctor. We’ll call her Dr. Awesome. Except, the survey doesn’t ask me to rate Dr. Awesome, the survey asked me to rate my recent visit with, well we’ll call him Major Scriptwriter, because that is the function that he serves in my care. He is the supervising officer over my doctor, who approves all of my controlled medications. Every time one of them has to be refilled he has to sign off on the forms for them. I don’t actually see him unless there is a problem. In all fairness, he is pretty nice. But he doesn’t actually conduct my appointments. If I were to see him at an appointment, I would be more than happy to take a few minutes and fill out the surveys and return them.

I received several for The Kid’s immunizations asking me to review our appointments with Major Happygunns at Medical on several appointments. I matched the dates up in my datebook, not recognizing the name, and came to the conclusion that this must be the officer who supervises Immunizations. I do not know who this person is. Never seen hir. If the survey asked me to rate our visit w/ Sargent Needlejab, who has administered all of the vaccines and boosters and PPDs that we have needed since arriving in Country, and doing so while keeping The Kid from dealing everyone in the room a behind hook kick in the process (who decided to enroll her in Tae Kwon Do?), then great. He is actually a wonderful Army Medic, and is great with kids to boot, which isn’t easy to come by. He once let us sneak in to get a flu shot on a day that I had a particular foggy mix up and confused my appointment times.

But that is not what is going on here. I am being asked to rate supervisors based on what their subordinates are doing, and I am not OK with that. If I don’t return them I get little happy grams a few weeks or so later (because, funnily enough, they have to go all the way back to the states before arriving in my APO box, it seems) politely reminding me to please fill out my surveys.

The Guy thinks I should fill it out with really crappy marks, 0s across the board, and leave in the comments that the doctors couldn’t even be arsed to show up.

I am beginning to consider his suggestion.

The TRICARE Pharmacy and the Second Shift

accessibility, military, Uncategorized, ,

Moderatix note: This post will be United States Military centric, as that is the perspective I offer, and the broken system within which I currently exist and attempt to navigate.  Other voices are welcome and experiences appreciated within the context of the conversation, since I can not pretend to know every thing about every military experience from every branch in every country.

Background on the Second Shift for the Disabled here and here.

When I have to run several errands I try to put them all into one day.  There are up sides and down sides to this, the upside being that I don’t have to drag myself into the main post multiple days, the down being that it is almost guaranteed that I will be doing nothing for the next couple of days except bonding with my sofa.  Getting to the main post itself is an ordeal, figuring out if I can make it to the bus stop or if I should spring for a taxi, both which require considerable walking, and then it is another ordeal getting from one building to the next, timing getting back to the smaller post to pick up The Kid from her bus and getting home.

But life is full of things that require this type of planning, not the least of which is refilling medication.  I saw that I was needing refills on my main medications so I planned this trip to coincide with some other business I had to take care of.

The pharmacy is a time suck.  There is really no other way to describe it.  Everyone, active duty, dependent, civilian contractor and retiree alike use the TRICARE pharmacy, and it is pretty busy all the hours it is open.  There is a website where a person can enter their scripts ahead of time “to avoid waiting”, but all this really saves is the five minutes you wait at the window while the pharmacist fills the bottles, since they won’t fill a bottle for a controlled substance until you sign for it anyhow.

I currently take two medications that are considered controlled substances by the DEA and FDA.  I am not familiar with schedules and what gets thrown on what schedule list and by whom, but I know that this adds extra hoops to my refills.  I was not made aware by my doctor just how many.  After doing the usual line dance involved to get a new fill for my pregabalin (because you don’t get “refills” on this, you only get new scripts) I showed up at the pharmacy window.  I knew that there was going to be trouble when the pharmacist saw me and immediately called over an Army Medic to talk to me.

The Medic asked for my form.  The blank stare on my face told him that I had no idea what he was talking about.  He repeated his question, adding that it was the approval form for my pregabalin.  When I told him that no one mentioned any form and that I didn’t have one he informed me that he filled my script last month on a verbal OK and was not going to do so again.  I needed to go back and find the prescribing doctor (yeah, because it is that easy) and get the form.  The thing is, the prescribing doctor isn’t my doctor, because all controlled substances have to be signed off by a doctor of a certain rank, and my doctor is a civilian.  I have never met this doctor.  He simply approves my meds, and my PCM is on leave.  Now, mind you, I have already gone through several steps just to have this doctor order this medication with my PCM on leave, which is only one extra step than with her physically here.

As it turns out, not only is pregabalin a controlled substance, but it is also categorized as a TRICARE Non-Formulary medication.  TRICARE classifies medications like this:  There is a list of prescription medications that must be kept in stock at all MTFs called the Uniform Formulary.  This is broken into two categories, generic and name brand.  Then there is TRICARE Non-Formulary.  From the website:

Any drug in a therapeutic class determined to be not as relatively clinically effective or not as cost-effective as other drugs in the class may be recommended for placement in the non-formulary tier, Tier 3. Any drugs placed into Tier 3 are available to you from the mail-order or retail network pharmacies, but at a higher cost. Prescriptions for non-formulary medications can be filled at the formulary costs if your provider can establish medical necessity.

I have to get my doctor to prove that this medication is better than all the other medications in the formulary for me, which wouldn’t be frustrating if I hadn’t had three doctors beat me with the “Well, if you don’t want to get better then don’t try Lyrica” dead horse the minute it was FDA approved.  *ahem*

The rub is that apparently I am expected to personally know of and make sure that these forms are filled out and hand delivered.  I knew that approval had to be given by an appropriate ranking doctor, but not that I had to get it in person.  So Mr. Medic Pharmacist sent me over to find the prescribing doctor who wanted to review my patient history, again, because he can’t be bothered to run my Sponsor’s last four into the computer and look at it when he writes my scripts.  I had to go find the doctor, review my history, and hand carry the form back to the pharmacy, only to find that the doctor came along five minutes later to make sure everything was fine (the doctor turned out to be pretty great, actually).

This has to be done every month, because non-formulary meds can only be given in one month amounts.

At any time a board of doctors can decide that something in the other two tiers is more cost effective for me and deny me the pregabalin, even if my doctors believe this is the best course of treatment, even if I have been on this medication before, even though I have already adjusted to the many side effects, and even if the Flying Spaghetti Monster hirself descended and said it should be so…

This paper trail runaround is a nightmare for someone with limited resources of energy and time.  It literally took me two hours to fill one prescription bottle, most of that time spent walking from one end of the building to the other (with a fun fire drill in the middle!).  This kind of running around puts significant strain on those resources, and for me it left me literally unable to do much the next day, needing extra hours of sleep and more pain medication to recover.  Now that I know the process I can plan ahead, but the knowledge is part of the problem.  We can be vigilant with our care, question our doctors in the precious time we have one on one with them, phone and email and re-check every thing, but still, some of us have to push our resources further.  It’s terrible, and it shouldn’t have to be this hard.  Not for our basic needs.  Insult to injury is that this is what is going on in our military health system.  Our troops and veterans are doing this run around.

It’s a great thank you.  Really.

A Delayed Deployment of Care

accessibility, medical practice, military, , ,

Moderatix note: This post will be United States Military centric, as that is the perspective I offer, and the broken system within which I currently exist and attempt to navigate.  Other voices are welcome and experiences appreciated within the context of the conversation, since I can not pretend to know every thing about every military experience from every branch in every country.

One of the most frustrating aspects of dealing with a chronic pain condition while under military care, as an active duty service member or a dependent is an inconsistency of care.  Something that I learned pretty early on is that my best bet for getting the best care is to have a regular doctor.

May I drop into a sports metaphor?

Your regular doc, or in my case, my PCM, should be the quarterback of your health care team.  Sie should be the one on the field, aware of all the other team’s members (your symptoms, labs, tests, etc.), the plays your team have available (medications, treatments, therapies you are trying/have tried), the other team members (other docs and lab techs), as well as the special teams coaches available (specialists).  The quarterback should be able to run the plays and call audibles as needed, because the quarterback presumably knows the team, is comfortable with the team and the plays, and has been doing this a while.

But if you are playing on a military team your quarterback gets traded.  A lot.  Often without you even knowing, in the dark of the night like Jon Gruden to the Buccaneers.

It isn’t unusual to call central appointments (because no matter how many times you have seen your PCM you can not just call hir up and schedule your own damned appointment directly, even if sie told you to) and ask for an appointment with CDR (Commander) Happygunns only to find out that sie has been sent out w/ the Reagan to whatever mission it is currently floating.  To call this a hiccup in care is the understatement of the year.  It can pretty much end the season before the playoffs.

This is a huge chunk of what amandaw calls the Second Shift for the Sick if you are trying to navigate your health care through the military.  Now, you have to find the time to get over to the TRICARE office to request a new PCM (which usually has to happen in person).  That takes time and spoons, and may involve some accessibility issues.  If you have a chronic condition you have to make sure that you get a medical officer (who, to my understanding, is O-5, equivalent, or above) to make sure sie is qualified to handle chronic conditions, instead of a Chief or other upper enlisted Corpsman or an lower ranking officer, which is a majority of PCMs at most MTFs.  Now, you have to call to set up a meet and greet with this new PCM, and that is going to take time because CAPT Nukeboom already has existing patients, or is new and has to fit you into the schedule.  If the appointment you were trying to make with CDR Happygunns was for a prescription refill (like, oh, something super easy to get like Vicodin or another pain medication), this means that during all of this time your quality of life is being compromised.  That prescription might mean spoons, which translates into showers or laundry or hugging family members or just being able to sit upright.  Maybe it was an appointment for much needed lab results (wait for it…).

CAPT Nukeboom isn’t going to just jump in and hit the ground running.  If we go back to the metaphor, sie is going to need time to get acquainted with the team.  Sie might even throw out the playbook and start over from scratch.  Odds dictate that CAPT Nukeboom wasn’t just going to write that Vicodin script or whatever you came for (yeah, I was kind of done w/ football too…let’s see if I can’t get a good hockey metaphor next time) anyway, you drug seeker, without really really making sure you really really need it.

Those lab result you were waiting for?  If you hadn’t gotten the results from the doctor that ordered them, and that doctor happened to be CDR Happygunns then you are going to have to go get new tests (WHEEEEE!).  Only the referring doctor can get the original results, but that’s OK, because CAPT Nukeboom wanted new labs and tests done anyway, and you haven’t been poked with something sharp in at least three months…

There is also a good chance that CAPT Nukeboom might disagree with whatever course of treatment CDR Happygunns was recommending at the time, regardless of how well it was working.  More spoons will be spent trying to reason with said new doctor who may or may not be receptive to your input.  If you are dealing with a best case scenario they are, and things speed along nicely, and you are only set back about three weeks in your care (only!).  Hopefully you can hold on without your Lyrica or your pain medication or your anti-seizure meds or your anti-depressants or whatever else you are waiting on, because you are not going to get anything until CAPT Nukeboom is satisfied that sie has fully come to understand your file.  If you are dealing with a less than best case scenario, you are going to fine yourself back in the TRICARE office begging them to let you request another new PCM.  Second verse, same as the first.

There are obvious reasons why these things happen (um, Hi, Mr. President, thanks!), but there is absolutely no reason why it needs to continue this way for people living with chronic conditions.  Modern technology means that our medical records are kept electronically as well as in hard copy back ups for all the doctors to access.  Lab work and test results are available freely to any doctor with access as your health care provider.  Notes and thoughts and memos from the countless doctors and providers…oh and all the specialists are all still there…a phone call or an email away.

A bump in your care can be enough to set you back months, and maybe even undo any progress you have made at all.  For some people I know (myself included) it can be enough to make you try to just “tough it out” and draw inward, afraid to seek medical care.

While the military medical system has many wonderful facets, including the fact that it is “free” *ahem* there are some huge flies in the ointment that need to be addressed.  With the high volume and tempo of deployments going on and the demand of medical personnel in the field so high, it might do well to actually use the military’s love of contracting civilians a little more in areas where it could be more useful.

I’m just sayin’.