Agency: TRICARE users should be wary of shady compounding pharmacies

The Defense Health Agency (DHA) is taking action to help TRICARE beneficiaries amid recent aggressive and misleading marketing practices of some compounding pharmacies targeting TRICARE, Dr. George Jones, DHA's chief of pharmacy operations, said recently.

Compounding pharmacies prepare medications for patients who need different medication-strength levels than those available in commercial products.

“Compounding pharmacies definitely have a role in medical care -- a very important role," Jones said. But a phenomenon that's arisen over the past five or six months involves compounding pharmacies going too far. "They are charging unsupportable costs for some of these products and expanding into areas where there is not good evidence to support the products' safety.”

A new type of compounding pharmacy has surfaced in which it distorts some of the elements of the traditional compounding process, Jones said. In addition, patients are being exploited by aggressive marketing efforts and other scams to get important information, Jones said.


Jones and the DHA are working to make beneficiaries aware of the practices used by these compounding pharmacies to get patients’ personal information or scam the government.

"It will be an ongoing process," Jones said, "and we'll continue to make adjustments to ensure that we can provide access to legitimate compounds and still be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and do what we can to help protect patients from some of these bad actors."