34yo G1P0 presents for NOB visit. She is originally from Thailand and does not speak English very well. Her husband is due to deploy to Afghanistan in November. When he leaves she will have no support system within the United States. During this visit we had to handle the psychosocial problems and family health concerns. You could tell the patient and spouse were very distraught on what the future may hold. This was her first pregnancy and she would have the child in a foreign country without her husband and she already had problems communicating her concerns. The couple believes that the best course of action was to have the patient stay in Thailand with her family once he had left for his deployment; however, they mentioned that Tricare was giving them a hard time because “she had to stay within the region he was assigned or they wouldn’t pay for medical expenses”. The couple wanted to ask our opinion on how to handle the situation. We told them that we could not tell them what to do; however, if she was to move in November she would be leaving around 28 wks gestation. So, a majority of her OB management would still be able to be performed at Bethesda.
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Wow! I wonder why they couldn't do a portability request. There is Tricare in Thailand. Did you refer them to the TriCare office at Bethesda for further assistance with that?
ReplyDeleteI think this definitely called for a visit with TriCare. She needs more support than she's going to get here in the DC area - particularly if she doesn't have any friends from church or the Thai community here. The baby's at high risk...not just the mom.
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