Lost in the shuffle

A few weeks back the school nurse sent home paperwork for Brendan's kindergarten dental checkup. We never got it done in the first place and were under a new deadline. Not a problem. I got Brendan in the dentist on my day off yesterday.

He did great with his first round of mouth x-rays ever. Chatted up a storm with the person doing the x-rays. I could hear him down the hall. He loved the bubble gum toothpaste for his cleaning and sat through the fluoride coating like a champ. Everything went great until I had to set up an appointment for his getting the molars sealed. He's not in the system. The person doing billing called Tricare and United Concordia. I'm the only one listed in the dental program. Not something I expected to hear after the appointment.

I get him back to school and check out Tricare online to find out who I need to call about this small snafu especially since the dental deduction is taken out of Jason's pay. One customer service rep said I could enroll the boys online with the effective date being June 1. I told her this wouldn't work especially since I'd just come from Brendan's appointment. Further into our conversation she mentions DEERS automatically enrolling kids when they turn 4. I bring up the fact Brendan and Colin are 6 and 4 respectively. Obviously we fell through the cracks at some point. She sends me over to enrollment so I can ask more questions as to why this didn't happen. Seems our coming from Germany affected DEERS automatic enrollment in Tricare Dental. Our situation isn't unique because the guy I worked with in figuring all this crap out has heard of this before. It's also not the norm. He was able to get things worked out so the boys are covered starting May 1st and will continue to be covered no matter where we move. Got to love the system. Hah!

This is one of the many frustrations we've had since being married. The move to Germany had Brendan and I not enrolled in Tricare even though the paperwork had been filled out more times then I can remember. Every appointment I made at the clinic I was told I needed to make sure I was enrolled the next time. There is no next time. I'm enrolled and have proof. Moving across Germany the same thing happened. Even better, it happened with our move back to the States. Jason filled out all of the paperwork upon arriving at RIA. I filled out the paperwork two more times because one kid was in, the other two weren't. Then all three kids were in but I wasn't.

What I appreciated about this fuck-up was how easily I got things taken care of. Once we figured out what happened the problem was solved. No arguing with reps which is the norm anytime I call HealthNet. No being treated as if I haven't a brain or because I'm the spouse I don't amount to shit. I even had the first person say she didn't know enough about the enrollment process and wanted to transfer me so I got the correct information. This never happens. Ever.

Keep your fingers crossed out next move doesn't bugger things up again.