Grave Concerns for Tricare Beneficiaries

Floor Speech

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Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Buddy Carter from Georgia, for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because our veterans deserve better.

Our Active-Duty servicemembers and veterans chose to serve this great Nation knowing it would take unimaginable sacrifice and precious time away from their loved ones.

Many of them left their lives behind and were taken to far corners of the world to face enemies of democracy. They did this for us, for our freedom, for our ability to stand here today without fear of persecution.

This is a sacrifice we should all feel indebted to, including those people at Express Scripts. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the company, it is a Cigna-owned pharmacy benefit manager, known as a PBM, that administers the TRICARE benefits on behalf of the Department of Defense.

Last year, the Department of Defense allowed this PBM--and this was suddenly and without warning--to institute pharmacy network changes that impacted 400,000 TRICARE beneficiaries by removing almost 15,000 independent community pharmacies from the retail network.

Most people in this country live 5 minutes from a pharmacy. They have immediate access to a pharmacist. They don't have to make an appointment, and they can go in and talk to that professional.

Most of those pharmacies are now excluded. They are located in rural and underserved areas. These people are no longer able to rely upon their local pharmacy to access needed medications and in-person pharmacist counseling.

These TRICARE beneficiaries and their families are being forced to drive sometimes long distances to find a corporate, in-network pharmacy, or if they can't do that, they are funneled into an Express Scripts mail order program, and that is unacceptable.

This abrupt change by PBM giant Express Scripts is especially problematic for a small group of TRICARE beneficiaries who are chronically ill, that have a disability and receive infusion medications in their homes.

It will almost certainly delay care for those patients with chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

By the way, I am talking to oncology groups now that are absolutely tracking that these patients do not get their medicine in time, or go without their cancer drugs, and it causes an immediate response and a degradation of their health based on the cancer that they have.

The department's decision to carry on with this contract despite the grave impacts we all knew would impact our veterans and servicemembers is reprehensible.

Veterans and Active-Duty servicemembers and their families are losing access to quality care, and those with cancer and rare diseases are often being faced with the impossible choice of switching to a new pharmacy that may be far, far away or paying out of pocket to stay with the pharmacy they have come to know and trust.

America made a promise to our veterans. We promised to take care of those who have risked their lives to defend us. Leaving our heroes in jeopardy to line the pockets of a multibillion dollar PBM is inexcusable.

As a licensed pharmacist for over 30 years, I know how much a community leans on their trusted, independent pharmacist, and especially in rural areas like I serve and like Buddy serves.

It is true that pharmacists are still one of the most accessible healthcare providers in the United States. Trusting the pharmacist dispensing one's medicines has a very real impact on health outcomes and costs for the patients.

I thank Congressman Buddy Carter for his leadership on this important issue. Buddy and I were both pharmacists in our former careers, we still are pharmacists, and we know firsthand just how much this policy will hurt health outcomes.

Our veterans and Active-Duty servicemembers deserve to trust that they can access the medication that they rely on, and they deserve to have strong advocates against these greedy PBMs.

They deserve all our thanks and more. They deserve so much better. The Department of Defense must reverse this grave injustice, and I won't stop fighting until our heroes get what they have earned and what they are owed.

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