Charles Asks,

I need to know if express scripts will stop paying my local pharmacy for prescriptions on October 20, 2022.

Hey Charles,

I’m not very familiar with the Express Scripts network but I did find several articles that mention their network of pharmacies will no longer include about 14,000 independent pharmacies.

This new policy will go into effect Oct. 20th according to a press release from the Bitter Root Star out of Montana. You can read the article here: https://bitterrootstar.com/2022/10/express-scripts-ends-business-with-local-pharmacies/

The only information I can find to know whether or not your pharmacy will be effected by the policy was this statement on the Express Scripts website:

Upcoming Changes to the TRICARE Pharmacy Network

A group of retail pharmacies will no longer be part of the Tricare Pharmacy network and the find a pharmacy tool will reflect this starting 10/24/2022.

The webpage to locate the new pharmacies is at, but again will only be updated by October 24th: https://militaryrx.express-scripts.com/find-pharmacy

There is also a Contact Us option there.

Finally, it looks like they are moving to a provider called Accredo and they provide more information saying:

Retail pharmacies
On 1 January 2023, Accredo will be the primary in-network pharmacy option for beneficiaries filling specialty medications. To help you get started early, Accredo is available to you today. Additionally, Freedom Fertility Pharmacy is available for beneficiaries filling fertility medication. Freedom Fertility will be the primary in-network pharmacy option for fertility medication needs starting 1 January 2023.

So, to summarize, it is highly likely that your pharmacy will not work with Express Scripts starting October 20, 2022 if they are a smaller retailer, you’ll have wait until the 24th to see what options are available close to you, and there’s a small chance that enrolling with Accredo will open or maybe even reopen more options.

Hope that helps,

-Will-