DO YOU EVER WONDER HOW TO LOWER THE COST OF YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS?

Optimizing cost outlay becomes more important as advancing age or disease state require a plethora of prescriptions. The TRICARE Uniform Formulary contains both formulary and non-formulary brand-name and generic drugs, and using it with medical necessity can help mitigate costs. To understand the formulary, it’s helpful to look at the TRICARE pharmacy benefit in total.

Filling prescriptions TRICARE gives beneficiaries four ways to fill prescriptions (from most cost-effective to most expensive): Military treatment facilities

(MTFs): You’ll pay the least out of pocket through MTFs. If an MTF carries your medication on its for- mulary, you can get it filled with no copayment. Though this is one of the most cost-effective delivery methods, distance to an MTF might be an issue for some. All full-service MTFs are required to carry the Basic Core For- mulary list of medications, which are intended to meet the majority of the primary care needs of DoD beneficia- ries. (The Extended Core Formulary includes medications in therapeutic classes that are used to support more specialized scopes of practice than those on the Basic Core Formulary.)

66 MILITARY OFFICER OCTOBER 2015 You might want to call ahead to

ensure an MTF pharmacy carries your medication on its formulary be- fore you make the trek. Home delivery: TRICARE Phar-

macy Home Delivery, or mail-order pharmacy, provides a 90-day supply of medication (the cost amounts for FY 2016 had not yet been released when this issue went to press; visit www.tricare.mil/pharmacycosts). This option is best for maintenance medications. You can opt in to Worry-Free Fills to automatically ship your next 90-day prescription. TRICARE Pharmacy Home Delivery will notify you two weeks before the refill date to let you know your refill is about to be processed. To add your eligible prescription into Worry- Free Fills, call (877) 363-1303 or visit https://www.express-scripts.com/

TRICARE/homedelivery/autorefills. You are not stuck with this option indefinitely. If your usage changes, remove a prescription from the Wor- ry-Free Fills program without can- celing the current order by calling the number previously mentioned or by signing in to your account at the URL above and clicking on the “Turn off Worry-Free Fills for this Prescription” link next to the medi- cation you want to remove. When you are ready for your next available refill, you’ll need to order the refills online or by phone. Retail pharmacy: TRICARE Re- tail Pharmacy offers over 57,000 net- work pharmacies to choose from that will provide a 30-day fill of your pre- scription. To determine whether a re- tail pharmacy is a TRICARE network pharmacy, ask whether it accepts

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK