Just thought I'd throw out a little note that may be of interest..
My husband just retired from the Navy at the end of January. I recently started seeing an audiologist at the Naval hospital and need to get a new BAHA as mine, sadly, bit the dust.
My last audiologist, who I saw before my husband retired, and I determined that I need and Intenso, rather than the Divino that I currently have. I spoke to the insurance reps at Cochlear about the situation and they said that as long as I had a letter of medical necessity from my doctor, they were confident it would be covered by Tricare.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that Tricare will only pay for the BAHA for the retiree, not the dependent family member, even when the initial BAHA was covered because he was active duty at that point. The neurotologist and audiologist are fighting them on it because I was misdiagnosed by the MTF for 5 years to begin with, and they feel that if my AN had been diagnosed sooner, I might not need the BAHA in the first place!
What I found even more interesting is that if I need a new abutment, Tricare will pay for that procedure, but they will not pay anything towards a processor. Huh? Why would a need a new abutment if I don't have anything to hook up to it?
So, those of you who are active duty or AD dependents, be aware that your coverage may change after retirement. Perhaps it would have been helpful for that information to be shared during TAPS class? Fingers crossed that logic will prevail in this case,otherwise I'm looking at coughing up a few thousand dollars for a new processor. I'm not terribly optimistic that Tricare will be logical.
Lori
