Military families now have more options for filling their prescriptions after Kroger pharmacies rejoined the Tricare network of retail pharmacies, as of Wednesday.
The Kroger Health and Kroger Family of Pharmacies bring more than 2,200 additional pharmacies across 35 states into the network, according to Defense Health Agency officials. The Kroger Pharmacy brand names also include Baker’s Pharmacy, City Market, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Harris Teeter, King Soopers, Mariano’s, Pick’n Save, QFC, Ralphs and Smith’s Food and Drug.
To find an in-network retail pharmacy nearby, beneficiaries can use Tricare’s online Find a Pharmacy tool.
Defense Health Agency spokesman Peter Graves said that as of December, there were 42,000 network pharmacies. But that number is fluid.
“The Tricare Pharmacy Network is a living program. We have hundreds of pharmacies joining and leaving our network on a monthly basis for a variety of reasons,” Graves said. “Our commitment is to ensure beneficiaries have access to a Tricare network pharmacy within our program drive time standards.”
Under the terms of the pharmacy contract, Express Scripts, which manages the Tricare prescription plan, must have at least one pharmacy within 15 minutes’ drive time of 90% of beneficiaries.
The copayments for up to a 30-day supply of a prescription at a Tricare retail network pharmacy are:
- $16 for generic formulary drugs
- $43 for brand name formulary drugs
- $76 for non-formulary drugs
Other options for filling prescriptions include military pharmacies – where prescriptions are free for beneficiaries if the drug is available – as well as Tricare Pharmacy Home Delivery and non-network pharmacies, where beneficiaries pay full price for prescription drugs and file a claim for reimbursement. Reimbursement is subject to deductible or out-of-network cost-shares and copayments.
All of the Kroger pharmacies left the Tricare network — and Express Scripts — on Jan. 1, 2023, when Kroger officials described the Express Scripts drug pricing model as “unsustainable” for Kroger and its customers. Collectively, Express Scripts plans cover more than 100 million people.
On Wednesday, Kroger Health announced an agreement with Express Scripts, affirming that the Kroger Family of Pharmacies would immediately resume serving customers who are part of Tricare plans and Express Scripts’ Medicare Part D plans. Express Scripts’ commercial and Medicaid clients can also add the Kroger pharmacies to their networks.
In October 2022, nearly 15,000 independent pharmacies left the Tricare pharmacy network, mostly because of what they, too, had seen as low reimbursement rates. The following January, 4,356 independent pharmacies rejoined the network, bringing the number to about 42,000 pharmacies in 2023.
“Unfortunately, Kroger’s return doesn’t signal a reversal of Tricare pharmacy network cuts, but rather an agreement to serve all of Express Scripts’ customers,” said Karen Ruedisueli, director of government relations for health affairs at Military Officers Association of America. “That said, we hope getting Kroger back will mean improved access for at least some of the rural military families who lost their local pharmacies when the Tricare network was slashed in 2022.”
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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