Hi! I am expecting my second child, and want to have a homebirth this time. I know tricare will cover homebirth, but they said that I have to have a network provider since there are midwives in the network (although I show none). The midwife who does homebirth is a Tricare non-network provider. How can I get around this? I am going to have my pcm submit the referral and hope it gets approved, but can they really force me to have a hospital birth just because she isn't actually in the network? I know my husband won't be willing to dig up 3grand for a homebirth when the other would be free. We are prime remote, by the way.
Thank you! I am very upset so hope to get some good responses.

No, they can't force you to give birth in the hospital, but if that's your personal choice, then they can have you pay some money for using an out of network provider. It's the same as if you would have chosen an OB/GYN out of network because it's your favorite doctor.

There was someone on another board who did a home birth not too long ago. She said the down side to it was that they had to pay for it because Tricare didnt cover it.