Veterans pay the price
by Tiffany Williams
Pharmacists throughout the Bitterroot Valley — and the country — are hearing the hard way that they will no longer be able to serve military members and veterans because of a decision to cut independent community pharmacies from their insurance provider network.
In a letter to members, Express Scripts, the prescription insurer for the military’s insurance network TRICARE, encouraged members to transfer their medications to a large pharmaceutical retailer like Walgreens or CVS or get their prescriptions through the mail. Express Scripts would no longer be filling prescriptions through local, independent pharmacies.
“We’ve been flooded with letters from patients this past week,” said Pete Seifert, owner of Bitterroot Drug in Hamilton. “They found out before we did that we will no longer be able to serve TRICARE patients.”
According to an article in the Military Times, the change will affect about 14,000 pharmacies and about 400,000 patients. Seifert said he reached out to Express Scripts, asking for the opportunity to be able to continue serving veterans and active duty members, but his efforts fell on deaf ears.
“We take a lot of pride in serving them,” he said. “We are a critical component of their health care. We provide emergency after hours services, compounding, packaging and delivery to nursing homes, and medication counseling that they won’t be able to get from the mail or a chain pharmacy.”
“It came out of the blue,” said Daniel Rothlisberger, of Hamilton. “Bitterroot Drug is my go-to pharmacy. Then we got this letter saying it is no longer going to be in-network.”
Rothlisberger said he’d been receiving letters from Express Scripts encouraging him to ditch his local pharmacy in favor of getting his prescriptions through the mail. But he said he didn’t realize “the clock was ticking” and soon the mail or a big box chain like Walgreens would be his only two options.
“Bitterroot Drug is a central part of our community,” said Rothisberger. “As a customer I rely on them knowing me and me knowing them and providing me with a service that I can’t get through the mail or with a chain pharmacy.”
Patients also flooded Florence Pharmacy. In a written correspondence, the pharmacy encouraged affected customers to reach out to their elected representatives, providing phone numbers for Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines and Representative Matt Rosendale.
“It is beyond unconscionable for the federal government to target community pharmacies in this severe restriction of provider access,” according to the notice at Florence Pharmacy.
“Reducing access to prescription drugs for our troops, military retirees, and their families is totally unacceptable, and Senator Tester is working to address this issue,” said a spokesperson from Sen. Tester’s office. “These folks, particularly those in rural communities, rely heavily upon local independent pharmacies to access needed medications and in-person pharmacist counseling, and that access must be preserved.”
“Montana has a rich legacy of service and it’s imperative our veterans get the quality of care they need when they return home, this includes access to a local pharmacy of their choosing. I am deeply concerned that excluding small, family run pharmacies from the TRICARE network could limit access to essential care for veterans across the state, especially those in rural communities, and am working with my colleagues to address this issue,” Sen. Daines said.
Marti Bowland says
This might work in big cities where there are Walgreens or CVS on every corner but it won’t work in rural America. I don’t think Hamilton’s Walgreens can handle the additional volume anyway. Bill used Corvallis Drug until he passed, and we do too. I hope the senators can do something for the rural states at least.
Hsabin says
Local drug stores in the Bitterroot Valley are much cheaper, and more efficient, Dan Express Scripts. I’m also wondering if this will cost more money and it will to vet because tri-care is two or three times more expensive than local drug stores for prescriptions. I am betting what will happen is Biden will raise cost to vets, and then they will claim that prices are dropped when they put these local pharmacies back on or something along this line this is nefarious and deliberately done to hurt deaths and probably because they voted for Trump. If you are a vet get angry get hold of all of your Congress people across the United States. 150,000 local pharmacies were shut out of this service to vets.
Denise Armer says
This has just happened in Roland and Muldrow Oklahoma pharmacy that I have used for years. When I asked them about it they told me they had no idea this happened to them until people started coming in with the letters from Express Scripts stating the pharmacy was being dropped. So, Express Scripts isn’t even notifying the pharmacy that they are being dropped and why. This really disgusts me that they are doing this and that we have no other option but to go through Express Scripts