If my baby comes out with 2 heads, I'm blaming Tricare.

Hello. My name is Gretchen and I HATE Tricare...and while we're at it, military medicine in general.

I took a home pregnancy test over a month ago and up popped two lines. I called the base clinic and was advised to come in for a "walk-in" pregnancy screening. I went in, gave them their lab sample, walked into a room, was weighed, had my blood pressure checked, and then was handed a letter saying "Congratulations New Parent". That's how I "officially found out" - no discussion, no explanation - just a generic form letter. How grand.

The nurse came in next to talk to me about what I needed to do next. It was pretty much me asking what I needed to do because I was directed to the letter I received. She sat there as if she was bored out of her mind, answered my questions and then stopped talking altogether. After a period of awkward silence I asked "Should I go? Is that it?" She said "Yeah, that's it" without bothering to even look at me. Wonderful.

So per the instructions I was to call my PCM for a referral to a local civilian OB. I checked with friends to see who was good, called my PCM and left a message first thing the next morning. I received a phone call at close of business that day from my PCM's nurse that resulted in the following conversation:

Nurse: I see you have requested a referral for an OB
Me: Yes, that's correct.
Nurse: What is the reason?
Me: I'm pregnant - I just found out and was told to get a referral from my PCM.
Nurse: Did you come in for a pregnancy screening?
Me: Yes, I did that yesterday.
Nurse: Did you see the nurse?
Me: I saw a nurse, she gave me this letter and told me to get a referral.
Nurse: We have no record of your visit.
Me: Well, I came in - how do you think I got this letter?
Nurse: Well, they didn't indicate it in your file...ummm, who is it that you want to see?
Me: Dr. Lawhon - he's with Physicians for Women
Nurse: Alright, well is there a way you can come in tomorrow?
Me: No, I'm flying to San Antonio at 5:00AM.
Nurse: Um, okay, I'll draw up your referral and send it out tomorrow.

Naturally, I thought that my referral would be waiting for me when I got back the next week. Wrong. So I called the Tricare Referral Office and discovered they had me listed to see some other doctor from a completely different group than the one I requested. So, they told me that they would change it. Four days later, I received my referral - for the wrong doctor. I called again. They told me, "oh no - it's changed in the system, that letter was just sent out before the change was made." Fair enough. So about a week later, I received another referral letter. Without opening it, I set it on the counter at home....well, the next day happened to be trash day and I can only assume that dear Erick, in his role as an exceptional husband (which he is by the way), threw away what he thought to be junk mail. No harm done really, I work right next to the clinic so I went over to the Tricare office later that week to get a new one. Unfortunately their system was down, but they told me the easiest thing would be to call Monday (today) and have them fax the referral. I'm all for efficiency, so I agreed. MAJOR MISTAKE.

So I called first thing this morning and was told "yes ma'am we have your referral for Central Alabama OB and Associates." WRONG! Here we go again.