PUTT Blog: TRICARE

Your Move America

TRICARE. You already know what’s happening. You’ve seen the reimbursement rates. You’ve watched patients walk away empty-handed because their TRICARE plan won’t let you fill their prescriptions. You’ve eaten the cost on both brands and generics while wondering how this could be real. You’ve weathered being paid $0.84 in total to dispense. And you’ve kept showing up — because that’s what pharmacists do. But knowing isn’t enough anymore.

TRICARE isn’t just broken. It’s being weaponized. Against patients. Against independent pharmacies. Against the communities we serve. And the worst part? It’s happening with taxpayer money, under federal contracts, with zero accountability.

This isn’t just about bad math. It’s about betrayal. Military families are being steered away from local pharmacies into mail-order warehouses owned by the same PBMs — and they’re doing it intentionally. They know it’s only a matter of time before you throw in the towel and say enough is enough and exit the network. Veterans are being denied access to care in their own towns. And every dollar that could’ve stayed in your local economy is being funneled to a corporate headquarters in another state.

We’re not talking about inefficiency. We’re talking about a rigged system. A system where the contractor sets the price, owns the pharmacy, controls the formulary, and cashes the rebate check. A system where the fox not only guards the henhouse — it invoices the government for the privilege.

And pharmacies? We’re expected to stay quiet. To keep filling scripts at a loss. To keep watching our patients suffer while the contractors quietly siphon millions from the system and dare Congress to notice.

Let’s talk numbers. Amlodipine, one of the cheapest blood pressure medications on the market, costs TRICARE $213.60 when filled by Accredo, Express Scripts’ own mail-order pharmacy. That same prescription filled by a local independent pharmacy? $0.84. Not a typo. Not a rounding error. That’s PBM math — where the markup isn’t just abusive, it’s institutionalized.

Now scale it. One hundred fills of that same drug cost TRICARE $21,360 through Accredo. If we paid every pharmacy a fair $30 instead, the total would be $3,000. That’s a $18,360 savings on one drug, over one refill cycle. Multiply that across the formulary and you’re looking at hundreds of millions in waste — money that could’ve gone to better housing, mental health services, or actual healthcare.

The AuditTRICARE.org maps show the fallout. Nearly 15,000 pharmacies have exited the TRICARE network. That’s not attrition — it’s strategic collapse. In states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia, entire counties have lost access to local TRICARE pharmacy options. Patients are being forced into mail-order, even when they live next door to a pharmacy that’s willing to serve them. But Express Scripts isn’t interested in service. They’re interested in control.

And the economic damage doesn’t stop at the pharmacy counter. Every dollar routed through Accredo is a dollar stripped from local economies. Unless you live in a state where Accredo operates, your tax dollars are being exported — along with jobs, revenue, and community care. This isn’t just a healthcare crisis. It’s an economic one.

Congress is starting to stir. Senate Armed Services has asked for transparency. But transparency isn’t enough. We need a full, independent audit. We need to expose the rebate laundering, the vertical integration, the price manipulation, and the deliberate erosion of pharmacy access. We need to show lawmakers what happens when you outsource care to a middleman whose only mission is profit.

AuditTRICARE.org is live. It’s a petition. It’s a campaign. A demand. A call for pharmacists to speak up, for patients to share their stories, and for lawmakers to stop pretending this is complicated. It’s not. It’s theft — of care, of money, of trust.

Because this isn’t just about fixing a contract. It’s about restoring dignity to a system that was built to serve those who served us. It’s about telling the truth, even when it’s inconvenient. It’s about refusing to let corporate profiteers rewrite the definition of care.

So here’s your move:

→ Share the campaign: AuditTRICARE.org

→ Talk to your patients.

→ Ask them to submit their stories.

→ Tell your colleagues.

→ Make noise.

Pharmacists — you’ve been the last line of defense for too long. It’s time to be the first line of offense.

It’s Your Move.

Brandi Chane, PUTT Board Member