From Military News, published Sept. 23: Next month, thousands of independent and community pharmacies are poised to be dropped from Tricare's pharmacy network, potentially leaving patients in rural areas with few options to get prescriptions filled. Effective Oct. 24, 14,963 retail pharmacies will no longer participate in Tricare's pharmacy network, Defense Health Agency spokesperson Peter Graves confirmed in an emailed statement.
While some independent pharmacies knew they would be dropped from Tricare next year because they wouldn't accept the terms of Express Scripts' contract, many have been blindsided by the Oct. 24 date, said Ronna Hauser, senior vice president of policy and pharmacy affairs at the National Community Pharmacists Association, an advocacy group for independent pharmacies…."It's just not a smooth transition process," Hauser said. "It's very abrupt. There's no clear answers. It's causing a lot of frustration for our members, and we know, hearing through our members, it's causing a lot of frustration for patients."
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