Lower TRICARE Copays For Specialty Drugs
TRICARE offers prescriptions by mail and home delivery options for qualifying beneficiaries. Thanks to a partnership with Accredo, a national specialty pharmacy, copays for specialty drugs delivered under the TRICARE/Accredo partnership may decrease as options for those receiving the prescriptions may expand.
Some 45 thousand people may be affected by the program and its potentially lower co-pays. Specialty prescription drugs are commonly used to treat chronic medical conditions and are often self-administered but require some training to do so.
Related: TRICARE Benefits Guide
TRICARE Partnership With Accredo for Prescriptions By Mail
The TRICARE/Accredo partnership allows TRICARE to offer some 1300 specialty drugs at lower copays. Stripes.com reports the copays for some drugs may be up to $4 cheaper under the program.
Stripes.com reports, “The Defense Health Agency contracted with Accredo, a nationally accredited specialty pharmacy, last month to provide mail order services for specialty drugs and enhanced clinical services,” as well as the option of expert support from clinicians and pharmacists around the clock.
TRICARE Express Scripts Is Not Going Away
Stripes.com also reports, “Tricare Home Delivery was previously administered by Express Scripts Pharmacy,” but Express Scripts is not going away. The partnership means Express Scripts is responsible for “typical” prescription drug orders while Accredo is responsible for specialty drugs.
According to TRICARE.mil, “Some patients with a combination of non-specialty and specialty prescriptions will receive their drugs mail order from both Accredo and Express Scripts.”
Related: TRICARE Benefits Guide
What Accredo Provides
Accredo offers by-mail delivery of specialty prescription drugs for TRICARE Beneficiaries. It uses the TRICARE Home Delivery program to do so. Those who get specialty prescriptions through Accredo have the following benefits:
- Expert advice from specialty-trained pharmacists and nurses, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- The ability to get condition-specific support.
- The ability to schedule delivery of specialty drugs to a home or workplace.
- Online tools to set prescription refill reminders and manage meds.
Signing Up for TRICARE Pharmacy Delivery Services
TRICARE beneficiaries can sign up to get prescription drugs delivered by mail at the TRICARE official site to begin delivery of approved prescriptions.
As noted above, TRICARE says Express Scripts is responsible for fulfilling non-specialty drug prescriptions, where Accredo is the provider responsible for specialty drugs.
- If you have a new prescription that qualifies for home delivery by Accredo, ask your care provider to submit it electronically to Accredo.
- According to the official site, “Once your prescription is ready, a patient care advocate will call you to set up your patient profile and schedule delivery of your medication.”
- For existing prescriptions, log into Express Scripts (you must have or create an online account there) to review prescriptions and see which may be delivered by Accredo.
- Once you have selected home delivery for those medications, the company will coordinate with your care provider
You can order prescription refills for specialty drugs online, by phone, or by mail. See the TRICARE official site for more information.
Related: TRICARE Benefits Guide
About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
