Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS)/TRICARE: Inclusion of TRICARE Retail Pharmacy Program in Federal Procurement of Pharmaceuticals

Section 703 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (NDAA-08) states with respect to any prescription filled on or after the date of enactment, the TRICARE Retail Pharmacy Program shall be treated as an element of the DoD for purposes of procurement of drugs by Federal agencies under section 8126 of title 38, United States Code (U.S.C.), to the extent necessary to ensure pharmaceuticals paid for by the DoD that are provided by network retail pharmacies under the program to eligible covered beneficiaries are subject to the pricing standards in such section 8126. DoD issued a final rule on March 17, 2009, implementing the law. On November 30, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia remanded the final rule to DoD (without vacating the rule) for DoD to consider in its discretion whether to readopt the current iteration of the rule or adopt another approach. This final rule is the product of that reconsideration. DoD is readopting the 2009 final rule, with some revision.