{"id":65706,"date":"2022-10-21T23:06:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T23:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/10\/21\/is-your-pharmacy-leaving-the-tricare-network-in-a-few-days\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:02:19","slug":"is-your-pharmacy-leaving-the-tricare-network-in-a-few-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/pay-benefits\/2022\/10\/21\/is-your-pharmacy-leaving-the-tricare-network-in-a-few-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your pharmacy leaving the Tricare network in a few days?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With just days before 15,000 community and independent pharmacies<\/a> will leave the Tricare retail pharmacy network, questions remain about the impact on patients\u2019 ability to get their medications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other changes, coming with the new year, will affect those who rely on specialty medications for chronic, complex conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, Tricare and Express Scripts will shrink the pharmacy network, affecting an estimated 400,000 Tricare beneficiaries, according to the National Community Pharmacists Association. Of the roughly 55,586 retail pharmacies in the Tricare network, 14,963 will leave after refusing to accept the terms for reimbursement and other conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those pharmacies will now be out of network, and beneficiaries who continue to use them will pay full price for their medications then file for reimbursement, which is subject to the deductible as well as a higher out-of-network cost share, said U.S. Public Health Service Cmdr. Teisha Robertson during a Tricare pharmacy webinar Oct. 20. Robertson herself is a pharmacist in the pharmacy operations division at the Defense Health Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loss of those almost 15,000 in-network pharmacies has raised alarms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI live in a rural area and Express Scripts is cancelling the in-network status [of] local pharmacies, which in some cases means a patient would have to drive up to 50+ miles to access an in-network pharmacy,\u201d wrote one Minot, North Dakota, pharmacist on a Change.org<\/a> petition started by the Georgia Pharmacy Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis does NOT benefit the patient \u2014 especially with the high prices of gas and having to drive two hours round trip to fill a prescription.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The petition had garnered 3,614 signatures as of Oct. 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawmakers have written<\/a> to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin about their concerns, as have several pharmacy associations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTricare patients earned their benefits, and it is imperative that they retain convenient access to their health care providers,\u201d wrote B. Douglas Hoey, chief executive officer of the National Community Pharmacists Association, in an Oct. 18 letter to Austin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the vast majority of independent pharmacies out of the network \u2026 it is difficult to see how Cigna\/Express Scripts is meeting even the reduced access standards in its new contract with DoD,\u201d Hoey wrote. \u201cWe therefore urge you to take steps to ensure all pharmacies that were included in the 2022 Tricare network remain in the 2023 network at the 2022 terms and conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout this action, access to needed medications for Tricare beneficiaries is in peril.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No response has been received from the Defense Department, a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t