I have seen Schwartz many times. He is a good guy but I do agree that he pretty much likes to do things his way. I can see him dragging his feet about the referral. As for the surgeons they will make you go to one of their "orientation" meetings before they will schedule your appt. At the meeting you get a packet of info and you fill it out during the meeting and leave it there with the dr. Then you have to go online and fill out a HUGE questionier. After they receive that back and review it then they will schedule you. Sounds like alot but you really can have your appt scheduled within a few days of the meeting. Out of pocket is $500. You have to pay the first $250 at your first appt and then the final $250 at your pre-op appt.

My assigned PCM is Maj.Schwartz, awesome guy, just hard to steer him my way LoL My referral actually came from Anderson. I got Dr.Richards for my surgeon referral also. I haven't made the appointment yet, I will in the a.m. when their office opens, but I probably won't be able to meet her until after we come back from leave in 3 weeks. What was your out of pocket costs with your surgeon? I'm assuming it will be the same since they are partners, I'm just wondering how much Im going to be paying for.

I went through Dr Cottam. My referal was for Dr Richards but after attending the orientation meeting I really liked Dr Cottam. They do the orientation meetings in Layton so make sure you don't drive all the way to SLC for one. All I had to do to change surgeons was call Tri-care and they sent me out a referal for the other Dr. You also need to make sure you have had a current physical. I just went through a GYN and they used that. Who is your PCM at Hill and which PCM did you end up getting your referal from? My PCM is Dr Lore. He was great to work with.

Just lettin you know that I got my approval ) I had an appointment with a different PCM and I asked him what to do, as far as advice because my PCM had been very unavailable to make an appointment with and hesitant. He asked me a few questions and wa-la... i'm approved less than 24 hours later by tricare!! what surgeon did you go through?

I haven't been back to my PCM to request it again. He's wanting to explore all other avenues before he refers me. He said he's not opposed to it, he just wants to see I've done everything else possible, so that's good that he's not against it. I've put it on hold for a little bit for personal reasons, but once I find out the result of this reason, I'll take it from there.

Are you at HAFB?

Wanted to see how your doing. Having gone through the process with HAFB I was wondering if it's going as well for you as it did for me.