Walgreens loses military prescriptions
by January 30, 2012 6:05 pm 344 views
A contract dispute between pharmacy retail giants Walgreens and Express Scripts has resulted in military families using Tricare to not be able to have prescriptions filled at Walgreens.
Tricare is the government-run health care program for members of the military, military retirees, and military families.
“Because the contract between Express Scripts, Inc. and the Walgreens pharmacy chain expired on December 31, 2011, Walgreens is no longer a TRICARE retail network pharmacy. However, with more than 56,000 network pharmacies nationwide, you can access another network pharmacy close to home. Or, you can use military pharmacies or home delivery,” Tricare noted in a statement to those in the program.
Walgreens and Express Scripts are, of course, blaming each other for the inconvenience to military families.
Officials with Walgreens are saying they offered Express Scripts — the pharmacy network through which Tricare prescriptions are serviced — a deal in which “the payment rates for TRICARE would have been lower than under Walgreens commercial rates.” Walgreens said it hoped to prevent military families from getting caught in the middle of the issue.
“Unfortunately, Express Scripts rejected all our efforts to reach an agreement that would keep Walgreens in the TRICARE network of pharmacies,” Walgreens noted in its website explanation of the issue.
The Express Scripts version of the story is that Walgreens sought higher rates than offered to other pharmacies in the network.
“At Express Scripts, we’re committed to keeping your prescription drugs affordable and accessible. That’s why we negotiate cost-competitive agreements with all of our participating retail pharmacies. Unfortunately, Walgreens’ proposed 2012 prices were much higher than the other pharmacies within our network. If we accepted Walgreens’ rate, their higher costs may have affected your future premiums,” according to the Express Scripts statement.
Jennifer Douglas, a military wife living in Fort Smith, first learned of the issue on Sunday (Jan. 29) during a conference in Conway for military families. Douglas, who said she is a Walgreens customer and would prefer to use the retailer for prescriptions, will boycott the pharmacy until the matter is resolved.
“I’m very pro-Walgreens, but I want them to also support us (military families),” Douglas said. “I don’t really care whose issue it is or who is at fault. I just think that if other pharmacies can support Tricare, I don’t understand why America’s largest pharmacy store cannot.”
Based on Facebooks posts and other contacts, Douglas said she believes many military families will boycott Walgreens.