I've been on hold for about 20 min waiting to set up an appointment for some horrible lower back pain I'm having right now.  This is my first time dealing w/ Tricare...any advice?  Pros?  Cons?

Prime is great if you're active you can go to any doctor in network at no cost and you don't need a referral as long as you go to an in network doctor. I'd stay away from base doctors they're so overloaded with everyone in their brother that they don't take the time to listen as well as a civilian doctor would. If you have standard you can go to any doctor your heart desires you just have to pay a little bit out of pocket but it's not much. you can go on the website and get all the info you need on the different doctors you can go to in your area.

it's pretty easy everytime ive used it. you don't even need an insurence card or anything you just go in and tell them and make sure you bring your military ID

I have prime and you're right hurleygirl!  I called yesterday and the first time they could see me on base was in a week!!!  Like I can deal with a bad back for a whole week???

wildfire, I have plain ol tri care, not prime and there are a TON of drs in my area to choose from....just go onto the website and find one near you, see if they can see you, then change them to your PCM  and you shouldnt have to pay anything out of pocket! :) hope that helps :)

trueblue you're right I was on tricare standard for years under my stepdad and the great thing about it is you can literally go to any doctor your heart desires as long as they accept tricare but you will get billed whereas with prime you literally pay nothing but you have to go to doctors within the network which is different from doctors that accept it and you have to get referrals for certain things whereas with standard you don't