TRICARE COPAY CHANGE

The Department of Defense has allowed Express Scripts (the Pharmacy Benefits Manager, or PBM, hired to manage the prescription benefit) to change the TRICARE prescription copay structure to tilt toward Express Scripts own mail order facilities as opposed to local pharmacies in a blatantly anti-competitive manner.  Island Drug and LaConner Drug strongly oppose this.  Our staff works extremely hard to provide an unmatched service level locally, in addition to other value added services such as Medicine-On-Time, ALL DAY walk in immunizations, FREE Delivery, compounding and much more including refill reminders, iBuck$ loyalty program,  and rx ready text notifications.  We feel the military families who served our country should have a choice on where to get their prescriptions filled ON AN EVEN PLAYING FIELD; meaning the copay should be the same for ALL providers.  If a beneficiary feels Express Scripts Mail Order is more convenient for them, great, but we are supremely confident that if the copay is the same customers would chose a local pharmacy where they can actually talk to a pharmacist in person! 

Again, those families who fought for our freedoms should not be subjected to financial penalties for choosing to have their prescriptions filled by a LOCAL pharmacist in their community.

ACTION WE CAN TAKE:

This change was implemented because Express Scripts convinced lawmakers that money would be saved thru mail order, which is obviously very important in this current budget climate.  However, this is simply not true; mail order costs the plan sponsors (in this case TRICARE) more money and creates tremendous waste…please see the detailed documents below.

If you feel the copays should be the same for ALL providers, we would appreciate you submitting a comment via the methods below and we will submit collectively to our representatives (Senators Murray, Cantwell, and Rep Larsen)

1. Email: wecare@laconnerdrug.com
2. Web Contact Form: http://laconnerdrug.com/contact.aspx
3. Printing,signing, and dropping off this form to your pharmacist: http://laconnerdrug.com/docs/TRICARE_copay.pdf
4. Leave a comment on the TRICARE Copay Change post found on our Facebook wall; http://www.facebook.com/laconnerdrug
5. Vote on the facebook poll on http://www.facebook.com/laconnerdrug  (direct link to poll)

Detailed information on this matter:

Below you will find great detail from the National Community Pharmacists Association about the fallacies involved with MANDATORY mail order.  We encourage you to read thru the information, there are some very shocking details, and then spread the word using the facebook/twitter share buttons at the top of the page or emailing a link to this page to others. The fine points are:

1. There should be fair competition, meaning the same copay structure for ALL providers
2. Mail order creates waste and patient confusion
3. Mail order costs the plan more money
4. Mail order fills a lower percentage of generic medications
5. Also included is information on the proposed merger between Express Scripts and Medco, an effort to reduce competition even further.