TRICARE offers four pharmacy options to meet your prescription medication needs. These choices allow you to fill your prescriptions whenever, wherever and however you see fit.
With a written prescription and a valid uniformed services identification (ID) card, you may choose any of the following:
- Military treatment facility (MTF) pharmacy
- TRICARE Mail Order Pharmacy
- TRICARE retail network pharmacy
- Non-network retail pharmacy
Do you live near an MTF? Filling your prescriptions there may be the best and least expensive option. You can get up to a 90-day supply of most medications free of charge, as long as they are on the MTF formulary.
Next to using an MTF pharmacy, the TRICARE Mail Order Pharmacy offers the lowest out-of-pocket costs. If you regularly take medications for long-term conditions like asthma, hypertension or diabetes, the mail-order option allows you to receive up to a 90-day supply of your maintenance medications for the same price as a 30-day supply filled at your local pharmacy. And your medications are delivered directly to your home.
Another available option is the TRICARE retail pharmacy network, although it is more expensive. You may choose any one of the more than 54,000 civilian retail network pharmacies throughout the United States and its territories. Having prescriptions filled at a retail network pharmacy is easy. Simply present your prescription along with a valid uniformed services ID card.
Want to save time and money? Transfer your retail prescriptions to the mail-order pharmacy. Contact the Member Choice Center at 1-877-363-1433 for assistance with this process.
Using a non-network retail pharmacy is your most expensive option. You will be required to pay the full cost of your prescription and then file a claim for partial reimbursement.
The table below summarizes your TRICARE pharmacy costs, which are determined by prescription type and where you choose to have your prescriptions filled.
Remember, the Department of Defense has a mandatory generic drug use policy, which means that you will receive a generic product instead of a brand-name product whenever a generic equivalent exists.
With generics, you pay a lower cost-share. For a brand-name drug to be dispensed instead of its generic equivalent, your provider must provide clinical justification and obtain prior authorization from Express Scripts, Inc. before the prescription can be dispensed. If a generic does not exist, you will receive the brand-name drug at the brand-name copayment.
For more information on filling prescriptions with TRICARE, visit
TRICARE's prescriptions area.
