TriCare Prime to the Rescue!

My family has military healthcare. Which, generally, has been a real blessing. I pay $460.00 PER YEAR to insure my family. That includes free prescriptions and no copays.

The downside is that, living in San Diego, it's pretty tough to actually access my healthcare system because of the number of active duty and retired military living here. Going to the Naval Medical Center is an all-day affair, because it take HOURS to find parking. Making an appointment for non-urgent care is something that has to be planned months in advance. And God forbid you have an emergency! The only time I didn't spend four hours in the waiting room of the ER was when I appeared with meningitis and was whisked immediately to the quarantine room. I once asked for a suture kit while waiting in the ER with one of my children... it truly would have been easier to just do it myself (they didn't give it to me).

They do the best they can, and I'm usually impressed with the quality of care I receive. It cost me $17.00 to have each of my children (and that was with the services of midwives, not doctors). If we need immunizations, we can just walk into the clinic and get them. I can access mental health systems, plastic surgery, rheumatology, state-of-the-art oncology, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, mammography, and every other specialty you can think of only 30 minutes away and without a referral.

Until last week.

As mentioned in a comment, I've been troubled with gastrointestinal distress lately. As mentioned, MSU is a former Navy Corpsman, Operating Room Technician, and Diver Medic. MSU is pretty sure I have an ulcer. I blew him off until about a week ago, when I presented with a classic and scary symptom of a bleeding peptic ulcer. Which, of course, can kill a person. Which, of course, gave me the motivational boost I needed to actually get myself checked out and stop assuming that the problem would solve itself once things at work changed a bit.

I called the appointment line for the TriCare clinic that is assigned as my Primary Care Provider and was surprised when it just rang and rang and rang. No message, no queue, no tones or a "disconnected" recording. I tried several times with the same result.

Next, I went to the website and attempted to make an online appointment. No appointments were available. Apparently ever.

Then, I linked over to the Naval Medical Center website and looked for clinic information that way. The telephone number they had on the NMCSD website was the one for the clinic BEFORE they got the number that is now, evidently, defunct.

Then, I called Information. They gave me the number I had tried first. So, of course, I tried again. Same deal: just rang and rang and rang.

So, Wednesday evening, after work, I am going to drive to the clinic as a walk-in. I haven't been as a walk-in since my active duty days (active duty in uniform always get priority), but I figure if no one can get in touch with the clinic for an appointment, I'm a shoe-in to be seen right away.

WTF??