TRICARE, the managed health-care plan for members of the armed forces, says it could greatly curtail expenses if more beneficiaries used the mail-order option when filling or refilling prescription medication. Roughly 9.7 million beneficiaries have used mail order to fill 10.5 million prescriptions last year – encouraging numbers, particularly when compared to the 9 million prescriptions filled similarly in 2008, according to TRICARE. But the 9.7-million figure still represents only about eight percent of all prescriptions filled in 2009. While most beneficiaries fill their prescriptions at retail pharmacies, that option remains the most expensive – for the agency as well as patients themselves, according to TRICARE. Prescription costs are lowest when beneficiaries pick their prescriptions up at pharmacies located on military treatment facilities. But often, distance and logistics can make that impossible. In those cases, the agency says, mail order is the best option, with patients paying a third of the price for their medications as they would at civilian pharmacies.
