WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The DHA Chief noted that some compounding pharmacies were taking advantage of US military personnel.
"[C]osts for compound drugs have skyrocketed from $5 million in Fiscal Year 2004 to $514 million in Fiscal 2014,” the News reported on Thursday. “In the first six months of fiscal 2015, Department of Defense [health] costs already exceed $1 billion."
Many compounding pharmacies are charging “unsupportable costs for some of these products, and expanding into areas where there is not good evidence to support the products' safety,” Defense Health Agency (DHA) Chief of Pharmacy Operations Dr. George Jones told the News in an interview published on Thursday.
Jones described compounding as a way that some pharmacies prepare different kinds or strengths of medications that are not available in commercial products.
Jones added the pharmacies have been using aggressive outreach programs to target beneficiaries of the military health coverage system TRICARE, and collect their personal information. Then the pharmacies use the obtained information to bill TRICARE as high as $15,000 for a single compound prescription.
Jones explained that despite being very expensive, the products are not even safe or effective.
“There’s a lot of internet and social media use as well as trucks advertising free lunches out in front of bases,” Jones said.
“They say, come and get a free lunch, and then they get people to sign up for some of these compounds whether they really need them or not… and then really raise the prices when they sell them.”
TRICARE is the US military's health care program for almost 9.5 million beneficiaries, including active duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members, retirees and their families.
