Stuck In EFMP

Oh Nelly! It’s been a doozy of a few weeks. And I’m not sure why I’m pulling out a Southern drawl when I think of saying that…maybe it feels even more loathsome!

EFMP means Exceptional Family Member Program and it’s how the military makes sure that your personal and family healthcare are maintained when you move from place to place. If you’ve lived in the same place for most of your life, this would seem simple enough. But when you move as often as a military family does, it can get very complicated.

Imagine having a new primary care physician every year. This doctor doesn’t know you from Adam and doesn’t have a clue when it comes to any of your medical history. In fact, you’re really lucky if you medical history has been recorded in an online system that works across your own branch of the military, let alone crosses over to others.

No imagine the military tells you where you’re moving to and wants to check your medical records to see if you will need continuing specialty care in your new location and to make sure that specialty is readily available to you. It’s important. If you had a chronic illness, or your child needed specialized care in health or education, you would absolutely want to know that your new location can care for you without compromise. This process is your EFMP paperwork. If anyone in your family does need specialized care, they will be enrolled in EFMP and taken care of.

When you are moving overseas like we are, everyone has to get a physical with the doctor and complete EFMP paperwork whether they are currently receiving specialty care or not. This extra level of clearance for your family is to avoid errors in sending any active duty member or family member overseas without the availability of specialized medical care they will need.

We’ve been stuck in the EFMP swamp since we first received our assignment the first of February and we cannot book our movers or flights apply for our visas until we are cleared by EFMP so this is a big stress for us right now.

WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG?

First off, the Air Force had us complete our EFMP documents on their new online system. This sounded like a great idea on the surface because it is meant to enable the spouse (who is probably more familiar with all the family medical history than the active duty member) to enter all the needed information. There were also two documents we had to print and get signed, and then upload along with medical release forms. One was to be filled out by the school counselor indicated if the child was part of any special education program or needed any psychological support. Our schools were great to fill these out for us, although they had never done it before so were a little confused by the forms. The other form was a release from our dentist indicating if we had good enough oral health to reasonably assume we wouldn’t need any urgent dental work done within 12 months. Because we have only been at our current assignment in New Mexico for a year a half (through the COVID-19 Pandemic mind you) we really don’t have a personal relationship with our dentist and this one took a long time to get done. But FINALLY we did. Took about two weeks all together but we got everything submitted and felt good about it.

Until Matt got a call from the office in DC.

Turns out that while he is Space Force, and needed to use the Air Force system for EFMP, because we are actually moving to an Army Post in Germany, we would need to complete their EFMP paperwork to get approved. Like, do it all over, completely. All hard copies. Sigh.

Oh, and they told us they are currently behind by about 1500 applications so we may be waiting for a long time…even though we are meant to move in just a couple months.

So I call our doctor to make a paperwork appointment. We are seen at an Army medical clinic already so I knew they would be familiar with the process. I showed up only to have my doctor tell me I didn’t need to do all the paperwork but everyone should come in to get a physical and that she would note their EFMP status on that physical report.

Okay.

So Matt calls DC to tell them and they say, no—that the army doctor actually does have to fill out 8 pages of paper work for each family member.

Doctor says no she doesn’t and calls EFMP to confirm and they do.

Except that remember, we are an Space Force family, completing Air Force requirements (not everything has been separated yet between these two military branches), to the Army system. His DC contact said that they definitely needed the paperwork completed and that there are 9 other members moving to this same Army Post in Germany that have had no problem getting theirs done.

We are feeling very ‘special’ at this point.

I go back to the doctor this coming week to again convince her that she needs to do all the paperwork for us so that we can submit this, get cleared, get our official orders so we can book the movers, the flights, the pet mover, schedule our car shipment, and get our visas (called no-fee passports for us, they take 8-11 weeks), all before our targeted arrival date to Germany.

And remember the back log of applications the Army has to go through. We are told they try to prioritize them based on projected arrival dates so we will just have to see!

Here’s the thing. IT IS TOTALLY OUT OF OUR CONTROL. Except for lots of calling and nagging that we will do to see it through. I can’t lose sleep over this or worry too much because no amount of worrying will make this part work faster or come together for us in the way that we would like it to. I know this, and yet there is still this undercurrent of stress.

I guess that’s why I am typing this all out. It helps me get it out of my head and move on mentally for the life that is happening right in front of me, right now. The life I want to live in and show up for. The life where things feel light and purposeful.

I know this may be the most boring-est of all blog posts, but I also know there may be some kind military spouse out there who is blindly trusting the system and who could benefit from asking all the right questions up front. I hope this saves you some hassle in the end. I know I am always SO grateful for other military spouse’s insights and experiences. It makes such a big difference in moving through this chaos with confidence and assertiveness. You’ll never get what you don’t ask for, so make sure you know what you should be asking for!

I’m sure that applies to all of life. Ask the right questions so you get to the right place…in the right time.

Love,

dayna