Tricare and Express Scripts wants everyone to get their drugs mail order. They offer $0 copays on generics and discounted co-pays on the rest. After that they have preferred retail pharmacies which I believe have a discounted copay schedule. I'm not sure if it's the same as mail order. Then there are non-preferred network retail pharmacies. For example as an independant I can fill Tricare prescriptions however they get charged a much higher co-pay. I have one retiree who fills here with Tricare. Express Scripts made them get everything through mail order for a year. Once the year was up they could opt out of mail order and get their prescriptions filled at my pharmacy with a higher copay. Then there are specialty drugs. Right now Tricare specialty drugs can only be filled retail at a Walmart or Target. So my retiree on Humira got all her scripts at my pharmacy then had to drive 45 miles round trip to get Humira at Walmart.
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Confused yet?