Full time and medical care

[RamblinFever]

We're planning to pull up stakes and go full time in our RV next year. The plan is to establish residency in South Dakota and travel the U.S. for a year or possibly longer. My wife has Parkinson's and diabetes that needs occasional medical advice and/or office visits. Just wondering how some of you are handling a like situation with Tricare for Life (military) or other medical plans while on the road. We have other medical here in CA but will go away once we leave. We will have no set schedule or stops but need to find out what our options are and how we can make this work. We appreciate your comments.

 

[JohnDar]

If you have Medicare A & B and Tricare for Life coverage, you should be good most anywhere in the country. Medicare is the primary payer and TCL is the secondary. You need to set it up online.


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[Lou_and_Bette]

I am also retired military and am old enough to have Tricare For Life, but my DW is still Tricare Prime. Easy for me to get treated, as JohnD mentioned, but a little more difficult for DW. We use Express Scripts for medicines but I would suggest printing request form from ES web site to take to every Doctors appointment incase a new drug is ordered so the office can just fill the form out and fax it to ES. We get our meds sent to mailbox in Texas and then sent from there to where ever we are. For regular Tricare I believe, for non-emergency treatment, you need to call for pre-approval. We are also fortunate to have a daughter who owns property on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where we winter. This puts us 30 minutes away from Keesler AFB where we get as much medical treatment needed done during our 3 month stay in the area. Good luck on your adventure and pre-planning is key so I would recommend calling and talking to Tricare now before you go.

 

[RamblinFever]

I am also retired military and am old enough to have Tricare For Life, but my DW is still Tricare Prime. Easy for me to get treated, as JohnD mentioned, but a little more difficult for DW. We use Express Scripts for medicines but I would suggest printing request form from ES web site to take to every Doctors appointment incase a new drug is ordered so the office can just fill the form out and fax it to ES. We get our meds sent to mailbox in Texas and then sent from there to where ever we are. For regular Tricare I believe, for non-emergency treatment, you need to call for pre-approval. We are also fortunate to have a daughter who owns property on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where we winter. This puts us 30 minutes away from Keesler AFB where we get as much medical treatment needed done during our 3 month stay in the area. Good luck on your adventure and pre-planning is key so I would recommend calling and talking to Tricare now before you go.

Lou, Thanks for the reply. We are both eligible for TCL. Making sure all Rx for meds are in place so there are no hiccups. She gets around good at this time and we should do OK. The pre planning is crucial and have all the "i's" dotted and "t's" crossed. The hardest part is deciding what goes, what is stored, and what gets donated or tossed.

 

[wdk450]

Lou, Thanks for the reply. We are both eligible for TCL. Making sure all Rx for meds are in place so there are no hiccups. She gets around good at this time and we should do OK. The pre planning is crucial and have all the "i's" dotted and "t's" crossed. The hardest part is deciding what goes, what is stored, and what gets donated or tossed.

Be careful about mailing prescriptions, especially out of state. I have heard on other forums that the Federal rules have changed, especially in respects to high level pain relievers, over the past few years. Kaiser recently put out a notice saying they could no longer ship prescriptions out of state. Check it out with your providers before you get caught short.

 

[RamblinFever]

Don't have to worry about pain relievers.

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