consulation with referral?

so i have been waiting and waiting, well it feels like forever 3 weeks, and no consulation put through from pcm. even checked with tricare. anyways i have been reading and researching, so my question is if you find a dr (civilian) that accepts tricare, do you have to have something reffered by your dr, or can you just call the suregeon office and get seen and go about it that way. so really just asking how all of you gals first saw the dr, at a civilan facility. thanks -jen

I see civilian drs as we are retired. You do have to have a referal to see a surgeon and it has to be approved by Tricare. That process was very fast and easy for me. Tricare requires a referal to see anyone other than your PCP. Where are you living. there are bariatric drs in most areas. Tricare can't do anything until they get the info from your dr. It is easy to submit for a referal. They just need to fax the request in. It has never taken me more than 24 hrs to get an approval for a consult. Find a surgeon and then ask your PCP to refer you. I hope it goes well for you. Diana

Yeah, Tricare requires the referral otherwise they won't pay for anything you do with that doctor, consult/visit/surgery/etc. I'd call your PCPs referal department and have them fax it again, this time specifically asking for the surgeon you have chosen, if you have found one. When My PCP did the referal he didn't specify what surgeon, even though we had discussed it. So when I got the referal it was for a doctor in a totally different (much smaller) town who didn't even do WLS. So I called Tricare and asked them to change the referal to my surgeon. They did, no problems. Very easy fix, but annoying that Tricare initially referred me to a non-WLSurgeon. Waiting sucks (((HUGS))) Good Luck!! Andi