The nearly 15,000 independent pharmacies dropped from Tricare's network could be reinstated, Military Times reported Nov. 14.
Express Scripts, owned by Cigna, manages Tricare's pharmacy network. Thousands of independent pharmacies went out of network with Express Scripts on Oct. 24 because of lowered proposed reimbursement rates from the pharmaceutical benefit manager.
Express Scripts will send contract solicitations in December to the pharmacies who left the network, Military Times reported, after Kroger said its 2,200 pharmacies would no longer participate in Tricare's network.
Military Times was not able to determine if Express Scripts was offering different rates or terms in the new contracts.
Tom Jenkins, Express Scripts' vice president of account management for Department of Defense programs, told the outlet that in light of Kroger's decision, "independent pharmacies that declined our previous invitation will be given another chance to consider participating."
Mr. Jenkins told the outlet even without Kroger participating, most Tricare members will have an in-network pharmacy within 15 minutes of their home.