The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

July 27, 2012

Vets out of luck when it comes to local care

Staff Writer MIRANDA BAINES

TARBORO — Edgecombe County veterans with Tricare Prime insurance have one less place in the county to go to receive medical services. Vidant Multispecialty Clinic Tarboro no longer accepts Tricare Prime, news sources say.

When Tom Feibert, a Navy veteran, went to the multispecialty clinic for his doctor’s appointment this month, he was shocked to find out that the clinic no longer accepts his insurance. Feibert was told that Tricare’s contract with the clinic expired on June 30.

“They just said the contract ran out,” said Feibert. “They never contacted anyone to let them know that it had expired.”

The veteran has lived in the Tarboro area for 14 years and said his health insurance has always been accepted at the clinic. Now, Feibert said he is faced with the decision of driving 15 miles to a doctor’s office in Rocky Mount that accepts Tricare Prime or paying a portion of his doctor’s visits out-of-pocket.

Previously known as the Tarboro Clinic, Vidant Multispecialty Clinic Tarboro became associated with Vidant Health, a network of interconnected physicians and nine Eastern North Carolina hospitals, in February. Vidant Edgecombe Hospital is still a practicing provider for Tricare Prime, according to a hospital spokesperson. Attempts to reach Vidant Multispecialty Clinic for comment were unsuccessful.

The multispecialty clinic still accepts Tricare Standard, but veterans and their spouses insured under that policy must pay 20 percent of healthcare costs, while Tricare Prime provides 100 percent coverage, said Steve Alderman, an Air Force veteran and ROTC teacher at Tarboro High School. Alderman received a letter from Tricare Prime on Tuesday stating that his primary care manager was changing from the Tarboro clinic to Dr. Emma Castillo, a physician at Tarboro Internal Medicine. Alderman will be notified if Castillo accepts him as a patient.

”If she doesn’t accept me as a patient, then I’ll have to go to an out-of-town provider,” said Alderman. “I essentially don’t have anyone in Edgecombe County who will accept my insurance now.”

Edgecombe County has a “large military retiree community,” said Alderman, and he has doubts that Castillo can provide medical services to all the veterans in the county.

“I’ve always gone through the Tarboro Clinic and it was never a problem,” said Alderman. “I was hurt that this occurred.”

Alderman said he was told that Vidant has chosen not to accept Tricare Prime at the facility in Edgecombe County because of “recent legislation” – the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, informally known as “Obamacare.” He said he is perplexed because he thought the purpose of Obamacare was to ensure that all Americans have health insurance, yet he now is being denied access to health insurance in his community after 23 years of service to his country with the Air Force.

“American citizens do not [yet] know the impacts of Obamacare,” said Alderman.

Vidant Edgecombe Hospital does accept Tricare and efforts to reach the administrator at Vodant Multispecialty Clinic were unsuccessful Thursday.

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