DOD Places Burden on Pregnant Spouses

[unhappycamper]

DOD Places Burden on Pregnant Spouses
December 01, 2008
U.S. Coast Guard|by Russ Tippets

Military spouses have one of the toughest jobs there is, being a full-time homemaker, mother, re-location expert and stress counselor for their husbands. They also have to perform these duties alone because more often than not their husbands are deployed.

Yet, with all these hardships that military spouses face, the Department of Defense has decided to place another burden on our pregnant spouses. The DOD has recently reinstated its policy that all spouses must receive their maternity care from a military facility, provided it is within a "60-minute commute."

My wife and I recently found this out the hard way. My wife is pregnant, and she recently went to one of her regular maternity care appointments. About a week later we received a letter from Tri-West, a subsidiary of Tri-care, stating that we must now take care of all maternity needs at Travis Air Force Base. Ding Ding Ding Ding! Alarm bells went off in our heads! This is odd, we thought. We live in Alameda, Calif., which is exactly 51 miles from Travis AFB.

My wife and I started our quest to get to the bottom of this. After a few days and many phone calls, I finally got a call from Steve Cargill, Tri-West's Service Director for Northern California. He informed me that in fact, yes, this past August the DOD reinstated its policy that if spouses are within 60 minutes of a military medical facility they must receive their care there.

Here's the big problem: As I stated earlier, my wife and I live 51 miles from Travis Air Force Base. According to the DOD, that commute should only take us 55 minutes. If you've ever driven in the Bay Area, you know it has some of the worst traffic in the country! You certainly can't drive 51 miles to anywhere in the Bay Area in less than an hour! But the DOD calculates mileage and time estimates using a program called Microsoft MapPoint. I guess the Microsoft MapPoint folks did this drive at 3 a.m. and that's how they came up with this time estimate!


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/coast-guard-news/dod-places-burden-on-pregnant-spouses.html?col=1186032369115

[juno jones]

1. Oh yeah, military docs make the best OB's

:eyes:

My husband was born on McClellan AFB in Sac, his brother on a base in Morocco. I've heard a few family stories that implied that neither were a good experience for his mother. She was treated impersonally and coldly during and after the births. MacClellan is now a huge superfund-type cleanup site, great place to be birthing babies.

Another friend of mine's brother was born on a AF base back in the 70's. She was given a series of shots after the birth. SHe found out about three mos later that one had been to dry up her milk-after she'd been trying to breast-feed her child and he had become severely malnourished. To say he was never quite right again would be an understatement.

My understanding is that you cannot sue military hospitals for malpractice.

Good luck to whomever with fighting this. Birth is hard enough in a supportive and mother-oriented enviroment.

[Angleae]

3. Dependents can sue military hospitals.

Only active duty can't.

[rakeeb]

2. That's odd...... I was in a similar situation in the LA area....

and instead of whining and kvetching for months like a victim, it took me all of two minutes on the phone with TriWest to put my family on the same TriCare Prime Remote I was on after they agreed that 50 miles on the 405 in LA or Orange Counties is not 60 minutes.