Comment on DOD-2009-HA-0097-DRAFT-0001

As a TRICARE Prime beneficiary, I have a great interest in this proposal. I have suffered from the one year lock-out after changing from Prime to Standard. My daughter has a rare birth defect that requires periodic surgery which there are not many specialists for. Due to a lack of understanding of Fibular Hemimelia, we did not get a referral to see our usual specialist and had to switch to TRICARE Standard. After her surgery, we had returned home and for all doctor appointments we had a difficult time getting the appointment we needed and she did not get to see her usual pediatrician. If we had not already exceeded our catastrophic cap we would still have been paying a percentage of prescription and other needs. If we had been allowed to return to Prime, it would have reduced our difficulty in the care of our child and made the difficult times a little easier. As someone who deploys leaving my spouse to contend with the surgeries and Tricare issues it is important that this rule is adopted in order to give some of us a little peace of mind when it comes to our families. Now, how about creating a rare condition and disorder management program to take care of those like myself that have to continuously explain what the condition is to healthcare folks that have never heard of it. At last check, there were only about seven other military families with the same condition in all branches of service. How about some help for us?