Pete Domenici: “The fiscal year 1993 Defense Authorization and Appropriations Acts required the DOD to conduct mail service pharmacy…”

“The fiscal year 1993 Defense Authorization and Appropriations Acts required the DOD to conduct mail service pharmacy demonstration projects. The fiscal year 1994 Appropriations Act included language requiring DOD to expand the mail service benefit to include all base realignment and closure sites not supported by an at-risk managed care support contract. DOD has moved forward to implement at-risk managed care support contracts; however, residents within the BRAC sites are still adversely affected because the managed care contracts will not be fully implemented in some areas for up to 27 months. This denies these individuals the access and convenience they previously had in going to medical treatment facility pharmacies. By acting to extend the mail service pharmacy program now rather than waiting for full implementation of the managed care at-risk contracts, the Government can achieve the following objectives. First, during the interim period, eligible residents will have access and convenience to a benefit that is comparable to what they had before by being able to go to the pharmacy at the medical treatment facility before it closed. Second, the existing mail service pharmacy benefit uses government acquired pharmaceuticals, where as currently, beneficiaries are reimbursed based on what they pay for medications on the commercial market, which are considerably higher.”