Question:
Can anyone tell me how long Tricare Prime takes for approval process?

I was given a referal to go see a civilian Dr. because the military doctor at the hospital where we are stationed does not do the surgery. Anyway the Dr. says he will send the letter for medically necessity, I called tricare, my paperwork was sent to the wrong place, but I got the dr. office to fax the paperwork to tricare on Thursday.(3 days ago). They recieved it but they said it has to go to the second level. Is this bad? I am anxiously waiting since I have been waiting close to a year now. Any response would be great. (5'2-218lbs, probably more now that I have been waiting.    — Tina B. (posted on March 9, 2002)

March 9, 2002
Hi Tina, I am in the same boat as you right now, I waited 7 weeks for tri care to approve me and I am being seen off base too, I don't know if that has anything to do with how long it took. Now I am waiting for a date from the doc. They are still scheduling people who had consults in Dec. and mine was in jan. So I guess it has a lot to do with how busy your surgeon is, and how slow tri-care happens to be where you are. Best of luck and e-mail me if you want to gripe together!!!!
   — Marleen M.

March 9, 2002
Tina, I had TriCare pay for my surgery and from the day they received it it took only 3-4 days until approval. Any case that requires medical necessity goes to the second level automatically. The girl hand carried mine to 2nd Level and they have 48hrs to make a decision from the time they receive it. I would call back soon and ask what the result is. I didn't get my approval letter for awhile. It is automatically sent from N or S Carolina (computer generated) there was a glitch with mine and they actually had to have someone hand write mine and fax it to BTC. BTC doesn't schedule surgery without the letter in hand. TriCare approvals are only good for 30 days so it is like a catch 22 if they are scheduling more than 30 days out. I got approved very quickly though.
   — Karen B.

March 9, 2002
Tricare approved me within two weeks of getting the paperwork from the drs office. I have been happy with way they have handled my claims. good luck
   — Becky K.

March 9, 2002
tri-care approved mine in 24 hours. they were quick.
   — Tonjia L.