TRICARE Changes in 2020 Seek to Lower Pharmacy Spending at DoD

TRICARE Changes in 2020 Seek to Lower Pharmacy Spending at DoD

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2000 included a directive for the secretary of defense to establish an integrated pharmacy benefits. Since that time, the pharmacy benefit from TRICARE, the military’s healthcare program, has changed significantly, creating new benefits, strengthening the safety of the drugs it prescribes and having a direct impact on how patients manage their healthcare. Now, changes in copayments, enrollment fees, deductibles and catastrophic caps have been put into place this year in hopes of lowering pharmacy spending, which made up more than half the cost of military healthcare in 2018.

DoD Battles Coronavirus Pandemic on Multiple Fronts

DoD Battles Coronavirus Pandemic on Multiple Fronts

WASHINGTON—The DoD is throwing the weight and experience of the U.S. military into the fight against the novel coronavirus. Navy ships, Army troops, Air Force cargo planes, National Guardsmen and Reserve forces are all being tapped to battle the invisible enemy:...

Air Force Medicine: Averting an Identity Crisis

By Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Travis, Surgeon General, United States Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Travis U.S. military forces, now in the second decade of war, benefit from the vast achievements Army, Navy and Air Force medics have jointly made in deployed and enroute health...

Executive Order Enlists DoD Help in Modernizing Flu Vaccine

WASHINGTON—A new executive order is aimed at increasing the manufacturing efficiency and effectiveness of flu vaccines. The DoD and Department of Health and Human Services are co-chairing a task force in the process of implementing the order signed in September by...

What Will Be Cost of VA’s Legacy EHR System During Changeover?

What Will Be Cost of VA’s Legacy EHR System During Changeover?

WASHINGTON — As VA moves forward with the comprehensive overhaul of its electronic health records system, the department will still need to keep its legacy EHR system functioning well into the next decade. A recent Government Accountability Office report suggests, however, that the costs to do that—already totaling in the billions—may have been underestimated.