TRICARE Improves their Pharmacy Benefit

Too bad the change didn't include having the military installation give you a paper script to take it to your pharmacy of choice!  I hate waiting in the line with all the others to get a script filled. 

The TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) introduced a new enhanced pharmacy benefit that involved combining both mail-order and retail pharmacy contracts. The decision to combine the two contracts, call centers, and claims processing was done to help control Department of Defense pharmacy costs. There are three improvements:

•Include a specialty medication care management program in the mail-order pharmacy

•Expand the Member Choice Center to help beneficiaries move their prescriptions from the Military Treatment Facility to mail-order, and

•Establish one call center phone number at 877.363.1303 for all services

The specialty medication care management program allows beneficiaries to use the mail-order pharmacy for their specialty medications. There are 130 specialty pharmacies available within the retail network. Beneficiaries participating in the specialty medication care management program will receive clinical management to: assist with compliance and provide support; provide customized education; and decrease drug reactions by monitoring and intervening when needed to the beneficiary’s doctor and talking directly with the beneficiary.

Express-Scripts is sending out letters to beneficiaries who are currently filling their specialty medication in a retail pharmacy. The letters outline the benefits of using mail-order and instructions on how to transfer their prescriptions. Beneficiaries already using mail-order are being sent a postcard introducing them to the specialty care management program. Express-Scripts has been sending letters to beneficiary doctors who prescribe specialty medication educating them about the new specialty medication management program.



(Source: http://www.tricare.mil/pressroom/press_article.aspx?fid=471)