Our home base is in Idaho. A couple years ago we were in Tucson AZ, we both came down with some sort of bug so we went to a "Doc n the box". We both used our TriCare and also again at the Wal Greens for prescriptions with no problem.
As you I do not understand the region thing, maybe a phone call to TriCare would help. If you do happen to get any info please leave a post.  We have TC Standard and have no complaints.
   
 

-- Edited by 2fortheroad on Wednesday 5th of January 2011 10:35:25 PM

-- Edited by 2fortheroad on Wednesday 5th of January 2011 11:01:56 PM

We were on Tricare Prime before we went full time, but have since switched to Standard. With Prime you must keep a primary care provider as your "go to" doctor for all care and referrals. With Standard you can see any doctor you want (but you have a lower co-pay if you see a doctor who is in the Tricare network). Overall, the co-pays and deductibles are higher with Standard, but we feel that's out-weighed by the benefit of being able to see any doctor. And you can even see a specialist directly, without needing a referral (which is required by Prime). Another benefit of Standard is, no $460 per year... it's free. We were told by the MacDill AFB Clinic that we weren't eligible for care in a military clinic or hospital; you have to be in Prime for that. I should have questioned him further to find out if he was talking about only the MacDill facility, or any military facility. So not real sure about that.

Another Tricare question. If you elect Standard and are not eligible to be seen at a military treatment facility, can you still use a military pharmacy to get a perscription filled?

Best Regards!

I don't post very often on forums, but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents on this particular subject. We just completed our first year of full-timing. We are retired USAF and decided to go with Tricare Standard because of its flexibility. Tricare has an excellent website we consistently use to find a doc in our location. We currently have established ourselves with NC docs, since our dgt lives in NC and that is where we will be when we are no longer able to travel and/or if we have serious medical issues. We have been very pleased with that decision thus far. No referrals are necessary to go anywhere and see whoever. We have used docs in the NC area, as well as docs in AR, where we are originally from. We attempted to get a refill on one of our prescripts at Seymour-Johnson AFB in NC. We were told we would have to "transfer" the prescript from Little Rock AFB but it would take some time to do that. So, we opted to get prescripts at Walgreen's since most states have Walgreen's -- of course, Wal-Mart is another option. You pay $3 for a generic prescript and $9 for the real thing. We asked our NC doc to make the prescript for a 90-day supply, so we get 90 days on each refill, which comes to $9 for a 90-day supply if it's a generic. As far as docs, as long as you select one that is on the Tricare Doctor Preferred list, you pay 20% of the charges. If the doc is not in the Tricare system, your out-of-pocket cost will be 25%. Once you reach $3000 out of the pocket in a year's time, you pay no more. My husband is getting ready to have a prostate biopsy in NC. Since there was only one urologist on the Tricare Standard list in NC, we opted to see someone locally...we will see how much out of the pocket we have to pay for this procedure.

I don't claim to be an expert on Tricare -- can only tell you how it has worked so far for us.

Tricare Prime allows one to make appointments at their MTF, usually, next day appointments.  One can still be seen at an MTF if using Standard, however, on a space available basis only.  Military pharmacies will fill a prescription issued by a local doctor as long as they carry the drug.  This all changes when passing the magic age of 65, then it is Medicare and Tricare, seeing the doctor of your choice in the civilian world.  I can pretty well guarantee longer waits in the office even with an appointment.  Not nearly as prompt on their appointment times as the military, at least that is my experience.  But the price is good.

Doris and Dave, thanks for your post. We do have different addresses for DEERS & Tricare & will now definitely make sure they are the same. We used our dgt's address in NC for Tricare since that's where we are most of the time and where most of our docs are and have not had a problem. HOWEVER, based on your post and the possibility it could delay a claim, we will change our Tricare address.

Thanks again for posting this.

I don't recall all the gory details; but when Connie researched this for our changeover to SD residency we could not stay on Tricare Prime so we shifted over to Standard. Since then we've just used Standard and paid the doctor the deductible once (and twice they didn't want it…so I don't know if they'll bill us later or just write it off, a lot of doctors write off the deductible and just take what Tricare pays them either for patriotic reasons or because it's just cheaper to write it off then try to collect it later.

We'll eventually settle down within the required 50 miles of a MTF and join back up to Prime with a primary care physician but for now Standard is the way to go for us.