TriCare insurance for Veterans give NO CHOICE for using a local pharmacy!

Retired military who use TriCare are now being required to get maintenance meds through Express Scripts if they want the prescriptions covered.

TriCare insurance is now requiring all maintenance medications to be ordered through Express Scripts – a mail order pharmacy.  And, I am not happy … at all … about this!

If you are not aware of TriCare insurance – it’s for military, retired military, and their families.

On the website ConsumerAffairs.com they have an average of a 1 rating – with NO ONE giving them anything over a 2 (on a scale from 1-5).  It really isn’t ONLY the rating that bother me – not that the rating helps anything either.  I prefer to have all of my medications in one place so that the pharmacy can let me know if one drug interacts with another.  It seems to me it is ONLY about money-savings (well, of course) and not about the patient’s, AKA people who put their lives on the line for our country, health anymore.  If you go to multiple doctors, all of your prescriptions usually end up at the same pharmacy that you use.  This way, you may get maintenance meds from Express Scripts mail order but other meds from a local pharmacy.  Do we really need more complications?  This is about retired military – you know, those men and women who served our country for at least 20 year … and their families.  Why hasn’t this been covered widely in the news?  If this was the welfare system there would be a huge ruckus!  (I’m not putting down welfare recipients, just saying that it would be a large outcry.)  Why is when it comes to the military — it’s just readily accepted?

We use affiliate ads to help fund our site.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

I am looking into this a bit more and will check out Costco prices and also see if Walmart will price match.  If I can afford to pay out of pocket instead of switching to Express Scripts, it would at least give me – as the cliche goes – piece of mind.  I’m not sure about 1 of my meds though, it is a bit pricey.

UPDATE:  Sam’s Club and Cosco seem to have pretty good prices on some frequently used medications.  I just want an option or a compromise to get my scripts locally!

I am okay with changing pharmacies if that’s what I have to do to keep my prescriptions local.  I’m really not okay with having some meds come from one place and others from a different place.  I also would prefer being able to pick up my prescription locally and not have to pay the $21 rush shipping fee if I need something quickly!  And, of course, there is that rating …

I’d love to hear from anyone who is also in this situation and what your feelings are about this change.