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Contact for Norfolk, VA
So my husband and I just got married on October 1st while he was on leave and he reported to Norfolk yesterday and is taking our information down with him. I did some of what I could up here such as getting my military ID and getting enrolled in Tricare Prime but I also have a few questions:
1. How does Tricare Prime work? I know with Standard they said you pay 20% of the visit but how does that work with Prime? Do you have to pay a copay or pay a percentage?
2. My husband is turning in our information to Family and Fleet for our housing to kick in but how long will it take to go into effect? Also I had planned on staying near my family in Ohio while he is in Virginia and he is going to stay on the ship but are we able to get housing if he stays on the ship?
3. Who can I contact or get into contact with that will let me know how they are doing on the ship for when he goes out on deployment? Or someone who I can contact in general if I have a question?
I am in need of some advice, please anyone who knows these things let me know.
Views: 200
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by abuon18 on
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With Tricare Prime you have to go to the doctors on base but you don't pay ANYTHING out of pocket. With Standard there is a co-pay but you can choose any doctor that accepts Tricare. I use standard and I have never seen a bill for my primary care doctor only for specialists. You are automatically enrolled in Standard & if you want to switch to Prime you have to do it yourself, either calling Tricare or doing it on the website. You do have to sign up separately for dental coverage that is NOT included in either Tricare Standard or Prime.
As far as housing, I'm not sure that you will be able to stay in Ohio. They may consider that fraudulent. Is he deploying soon? That would be the only way. Otherwise you would have to move down there I'm pretty sure. Maybe someone else will be able to answer that for you.... But he will get BAH for Norfolk no matter where you are actually living. He will be assigned a rack on the ship until you move to VA and once you have housing in VA, whether military or civilian, he can move off the ship. But since he is married & receiving BAH he will not be assigned a barracks room, only a rack on the ship. The BAH can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a couple of months to kick in, personally for us, it was on my husband's next paycheck after we got married and he submitted the paperwork, included the back BAH we were owed. If it's not on the next paycheck he should just keep checking with admin. I don't know if it will be affected by te shutdown at all, if there are any civilians who work in the offices that process the paperwork and stuff but I think those are all Navy.
He will have to email the ombudsman and FRG and get you added to their email lists. You can try and they will be helpful to you but they won't officially add you to their communications until they get an email from his ship's email address. -
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Permalink Reply by rikki_100113 on
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OK how do I sign up for dental? We went to a base close to us and signed me up for Tricare prime so I am all set with that and received my cards in the mail. Also what do you mean by fraudulent? Yes he is deploying in February. And right now he is staying in the rack on the ship but we had planned for me to stay in Ohio and finding a place up here since he is deploying so soon and he would rather me stay close to family and not be by myself. Also when you say that he will have to email the ombudsman and FRG form his ship's email, does he get an email when they do like "processing"? And thank you so much for the info already it has been a big help.
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Permalink Reply by Anti M on
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When he is in port, he's not supposed to have the Navy house him while you receive BAH elsewhere. That;s considered double-dipping. Since he's berthing on the ship, it may not be an issue. It is called geographic bachelor, and they've cut down on it when the sailors try to use the barracks for free. He needs to ask his ship, and I don't mean his chief, I mean the clerks who handle the pay and so on. He needs to be sure the paperwork is lined up properly so there are no surprises. You will get BAH for Norfolk.
You can contact the ombudsman directly, just google the ship's page, and her contact info will be on it somewhere. The reason for the email from him from his .mil email is to verify he wants you to be contacted. There are enough crazy people in the world that the ombudsman needs to be sure who she is communicating with.
I'm on Prime. We pay one annual premium, but must use a military doctor if we are near a base. We are. Using other doctors requires a referral, but it isn't that bad. My office co-pays offbase are $12. Prescriptions are $5 or $10 (depends on what I get), free on base. Hospital stay is $55, ER is free for emergency care.
We switched from the Delta Dental through Tricare to a civilian provider, it is cheaper. Still, better than nothing.
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He is in port now but is on sea side duty? I know that he goes out on deployment in February. And he was going to stay on the ship in the racks because that made more sense to do that and for me to stay in Ohio. But he was supposed to go to Family and Fleet toady but he did not so he will have to go Monday if they are still open due to the holiday and get our paperwork turned in so we can start seeing when we will receive BAH. But now is the daunting task of having to find out how to get our stuff from where it was stored at in Georgia to Ohio.
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Permalink Reply by Lily_ter'swife on
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have him sign you up for dental. it only takes like 15 min for him to do it. you'll have to get the number, but he will need a credit card number. I had him do it the night of graduation. The metlife guy said I would need a POA inorder to send the paperwork in that my husband sent me. He said it was way easier to have my husband do it.
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Well we got married while he was on his leave and he just reported to his base yesterday and he is going to fill out the housing paperwork but because he is going on deployment in February we did not think it was necissary for me to live down there for 3 months and then be by myself while he is on deployment. So we thought it would be easier for me to stay in Ohio and then move when he got back from deployment. But I do know that even if I live in Ohio I would get BAH for Virginia so I know that. But the thing is do you turn in your lease to them or something like what paperwork do you turn into them to show that you are living off base?
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Yea I believe Norfolk has 1400 is BAH and we have not signed a lease yet due to we did not know how this works so he was going to go in on Monday and fill out the paperwork. And he does not have accompanied orders due to us not getting married until he was on leave. But I am already enrolled in DEERS and I have an Air Force base close to me and I would be going there for all on my medical care.
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Monday is a federal holiday, none of the offices will be open. Tuesday will be fine.
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Permalink Reply by Fur&FeathersDVM on
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My husband and I just finished geobaching for four years while I was in veterinary school in Ohio, and he was stationed in VA. While could have changed in the five months since I graduated, here's what our experience was:
BAH is actually a fixed rate. Regardless of the amount of your rent, your sailor gets the amount of his BAH for his duty station at the paygrade and dependent status that is appropriate to him. If you choose to rent somewhere that is under that amount, you absolutely get to pocket the leftovers. We each got an apartment at the place we were living and the cost of the two apartments was more than covered by BAH, and then we pocketed the rest. When I graduated in May and terminated my lease in Ohio, we kept the apartment in VA and continued to receive the same level of BAH, keeping the leftovers. If someone decides to live in a smaller place and not sure all their BAH for housing, that's perfectly within their rights. Your husband cannot receive BAH and a room in the barracks, so if you chose to stay in Ohio, he is responsible for footing the bill on a place to live for himself in VA, or will need to live on the ship.
About half of the sailors at my husband's last command were geo bachelors. As long as you were upfront with the command and had addresses updated in DEERS, and you followed the rules, it was a non-issue. Tricare will cover you wherever you are living, as long as your address is appropriately updated and you are signed up in the correct region. None of my fellow spouses at that command ever had a problem getting insurance coverage, and we all had various reasons for geobaching (staying close to family, school, not wanting to uproot children, simply liked a different area better, jobs, etc.). Everyone had accompanied orders. They just all got Norfolk BAH, regardless of where their families were.
I never once had anyone ask me why we were choosing to geobach for official purposes. All the navy cared about was that we weren't trying to pull extra BAH or trying to get a room for my husband and get BAH. Tricare never asked why, they just assigned me a doctor in Ohio (I had a civilian doctor despite being on Prime due to my distance from any sort of military treatment facility) and switched me to one in VA once I moved. Just be sure your husband is honest and upfront about the situation with the people in his command who handle paperwork and follow whatever guidance they give you and you will be fine. :)
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Thank you so very much for this we have been wondering and trying to figure anything out but since the office is closed today we are not able to get our questions answered. But this was a big help. And the address they have for me in the system is where I am at now which I will only be changing when I move to like 2 miles down the road and the address now is with my parents so that helps out because they dont mind that at all. And I was worried about having to turn in a lease and what they might ask for so I sent my husband with everything that I thought he would need.
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