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Lt. Col. Erik Arrington enrolls in the Pharmacy Home Delivery program with the help of Express Scripts representative Anissa Toenjes on Feb. 12, 2014, at Naval Health Clinic Quantico, as Petty Officer 2nd Class Zary Rivera, one of the clinic’s pharmacy technicians, looks on.

Photo by Mike DiCicco

New program offers free home-delivery of medications

13 Feb 2014 | Mike DiCicco Marine Corps Base Quantico

Tricare beneficiaries can now have medications sent to their homes free of charge. This is a change from the old Mail-Order Pharmacy program, which charged a small fee for even generic medications. Under the new Pharmacy Home Delivery program, generic medications are delivered free of charge, while non-formulary or brand-name medications still require a copay, albeit a much smaller one than beneficiaries would pay at an in-network retail pharmacy.

Naval Health Clinic Quantico started offering the program at the beginning of February but held its formal kickoff Feb. 12, 2014, said clinic public affairs officer Heidi Linscott. She said the program is primarily for long-term, maintenance medications, such as those for cholesterol or high blood pressure.

“Our goal is to help those patients who take these medications not have to come and stand in line to get them,” Linscott said.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Zary Rivera, a pharmacy technician, said some customers come from as far as Richmond to get medication from the clinic. “Sometimes, we don’t have the medication in stock and they get upset,” she added.

Linscott said the new program is important to the clinic because the facility keeps a small stock of medications due to a lack of space.

Another advantage of the new program is that refills are automatic, said Anissa Toenjes, a representative from Express Scripts, the company that administers the program. She was on hand to help customers sign up for Pharmacy Home Delivery on the kickoff day.

“With the automatic refill, when you’re down to the last 30 days of medication, we’ll call you and let you know when we’re going to refill it, and then we’ll send it to you,” Toenjes said.

Pharmacists will be available to help customers sign up for the program whenever the pharmacy is open, Linscott said.

Customers can also enroll and order or change prescriptions online at www.express-scripts.com/tricare or by phone at 800-238-6095.

— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com


Marine Corps Base Quantico