If you’re someone who sees a problem and says, “Nothing will change, even if I call,” this column is for you.
Several Oklahoma service members, veterans, and their families reached out to my office a little over a month ago to tell me they just received a letter saying they could no longer use their local pharmacy because the Defense Health Agency suddenly cut thousands of rural pharmacies from their plan.
You called, I heard you, and we fixed it—together.
Here is the back story.
At the end of September, many small-town and family-owned pharmacy patients who use TRICARE were abruptly told they would need to pick another pharmacy because about 15,000 mostly rural independent pharmacies were cut out of the TRICARE network. When TRICARE cut them out, the pharmacy was left with no way to be reimbursed for filling prescriptions for service members and veterans.
Veterans were told to use the mail-order pharmacy owned by the DOD contractor or drive 20-30 miles to find a different pharmacy starting almost immediately on October 24. Our heroes and their families who’ve used the same pharmacist for decades suddenly had one more hassle.
Oklahoma pharmacists and their patients immediately reached out to tell me about the veteran prescription drug access issue created by the Biden Administration through the Defense Health Agency. They shared the details of what they heard about the new TRICARE network and how devastating this would be to their patients all over the state.
I visited Hite Drug in Chandler and heard firsthand about the real problems imposed on older veterans when they have to drive 20+ miles to get to a new pharmacy. I also stopped in to visit with the pharmacist at Ritter’s Express Pharmacy in Atoka, who said they’re experiencing the same issues.
I took the concerns directly to the Defense Health Agency to ask the Director to stop the exclusion of rural pharmacies for service members and veterans.
I pushed them to allow service members and veterans to once again go to the pharmacy of their choice, nearest to their home. I sent formal requests in writing, joined by many other Members of Congress whose rural and family-owned pharmacies were also experiencing this problem for their veterans. I wrote an amendment to include in this year’s national defense authorization bill in case they didn’t immediately reverse their decision.
Last week, because of our push, rural independent pharmacies who were excluded were notified that they’ll have an opportunity to re-enter the TRICARE pharmacy network. The announcement allows impacted pharmacies to receive new contracts and hopefully get back to serving our heroes.
There’s still work to be done to ensure these contracts provide adequate reimbursements to independent pharmacies for providing pharmacy services to service members and retirees. But thanks to all the Oklahomans who saw the problem and didn’t just wish it could be different, they locked arms with our team, and we got it fixed together. I continue to remind Oklahomans that the Constitution begins with “We” for a reason.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving. We have one more thing to be grateful for.
