Beginning in January, Tricare will require patients using its mail order pharmacy to confirm that they want their prescriptions refilled, rather than sending them automatically.
Express Scripts, Tricare's pharmacy benefits manager, began notifying patients last week of the pending change. According to the email, Tricare Mail Order Pharmacy users will receive a notification via email or text when their prescription is up for a refill and must log in to confirm the request.
Once authorized, Express Scripts will send the medication.
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If a beneficiary turns down a refill or does not respond, the prescription will be removed from the automatic refill program, but Express Scripts will continue sending reminder notifications until the prescription expires, according to Defense Health Agency spokesman Peter Graves.
Graves said the DHA directed Express Scripts to institute the approval system to “ensure Tricare beneficiaries are receiving refills on medication when needed and to prevent excess waste.”
Express Scripts is the target of a lawsuit filed by the federal government under the False Claims Act that charges it delivered excess prescription drugs to military beneficiaries through the Tricare Mail Order Pharmacy system and profited at the expense of the Defense Department.
The suit, filed in 2019 and unsealed this year, alleges that the…
