This is about PCSed folks, not TDY, and especially not TDY dependents (spouses, children, etc.) the U. S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka is closest to Womble gate, and is a 'one stop shopping' type of place.
Emergency room, pharmacy, dental, laboratory, GPs, surgery, etc. For a complete list of what, and the phone numbers, go to the cfay page, click on links at the top, and towards the bottom of the list is U.S. Navy Hospital.
The emergency room experience was kind of weird. We came through the side of the hospital near the bus stop that says EMERGENCY on it, and turned to our left, and went into a small 'box.' I was told I couldn't see them, but they could see me. Someone showed up with a clip-board, and we were then assigned a curtained-off area. From that point, it was just like any other emergency room experience, except it was fast.
The clip board person will want to know your SPOUSES social security number, or at least the last four digits. They'll want to know their 'command,' which I assume is PSNS. You are definitely a DoD civilian (which they list as being folks they care for, however, being a TDY spouse or dependent... I'm not sure which way they'll go with this). They might want your spouses work phone number. Have your health insurance card ready, as well.
Rear Admiral Kelly spoke to a group of us, and promised they'll help us out over here. He also said if they don't have the specialized equipment needed, they will send you off base. A friend had to do this, and they sent her with an interpreter. But it was a pretty unique service needed. Again, I really don't know how they'll handle the dependents of TDY.
When I was here TDY, I had a cyst rupture (I didn't know it at the time). I thought I was having an appendicitis attack, without the fever. I was memorizing the Japanese words for sick and pain and hospital. I figured I'd try to get on base first to the hospital, and go from there. Hey, when you need help, you need help. And that's when you're secretly glad the Japanese study so much!!!
A friend (spouse to a DoD Civilian PCSed here) just had surgery, and said she was impressed by the US Navy hospital. For another condition they couldn't treat here, she was sent home. They paid for car and hotel while she had tests done.
At USNH, military get preference. A retired military, now PSNS employee spouse and I had to wait a WHOLE DAY in the dental emergency room to be seen for a crown that popped off. When we arrived, they explained that they are low staff (people deployed to Iraq) and that they'd try to work her in. While we waited, we watched many children be escorted back to have their teeth looked at, or cleaned. One of the kids moms said that it is such a long wait to get to see a dentist, that she wasn't going to cancel! So, there are few cancellations, and therefore took so long to get in to be seen. They told her the root needed pulled.
Eventually my retired military/DoD Civ spouse flew home to Washington state to see her dentist and have him take care of this. He re-did the crown.
So, moral of this story is, get your dental work done at home!!! I come home each year on our own dime, and one of the things I have done is my dental. I teach a dentist English here, and I have no reason to believe that dentists aren't top notch here. But, I'm pretty picky and need to trust the person who sticks drills into my mouth. That niggling tooth ended up being a pain until I got home to take care of it.
Second moral of the story: Don't get sick! If you do, it is a modern country, and you'll be fine. Some places abroad ask that you pay up-front, and sort out the rest with your health insurance later (keep that receipt!). I had to pay like that in Canada (carry-you-down-the-mountain-ski-accident emergency room visit) and Australia (strep throat Doc-in-a-Box... Group Health and Blue Cross respectively), but I used to travel a lot.
Top of a Climb Tour de France 2016
6 years ago
1 comment:
Hello!
I had A LOT of experience with the US Naval Hospital in Yokosuka in 2009 while I was on TDY (I was employed at that time with PSNS). I was impressed by the doctors and nurses, but the front desk help was, well, a not the greatest and gave me a lot of wrong info and ran me around.
If you're TDY, go to the Tri Care ladies. They'll know how to process you (since you're a weird category of not Navy but not contractor either) and they gave me a packet called "Non Tricare eligible DOD Civilians" that had all of the info in it, including the name of a primary care physician for me to call. I would recommend all TDY employees go get that info when they get there. It's a lot easier to have that information when you're sick and needing a doctor than hauling your not-feeling-so-hot self to go get the run around.
The next hurdle we faced was payment. The command urged us to reconcile our bills before leaving and then submit to our health insurance afterwards. I personally would not recommend that. Here's why (we were with Group Health at the time): I got all of my receipts saying I paid and everything piece of paper they had on me including my health records (I was receiving prenatal care so there was a lot of records). I submitted this to Group Health and they denied it saying I needed the diagnosis codes. So I called the Naval Hospital and they said that they couldn't give me the diagnosis codes. Furthermore, because I'd already paid, everything was "closed" and they couldn't go back and provide more info. I ended up having to submit my entire medical record along with the receipts and have Group Health decipher the diagnosis codes.
The moral of the story is I wish I hadn't paid and just let Group Health have to deal with getting the stupid codes from the Naval Hospital. I felt like a middle man that didn't speak the right medical lingo and it was a long drawn out experience. We didn't get reimbursed until over a year later.
These are my experiences and I'm more than willing to answer any questions since I had a lot of experience with the Naval Hospital. Oh, and I had an ER visit too and would have some advice on that too...
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