Dodgy companies peddling pricey compound pharmaceuticals have fleeced the TRICARE program so severely this year, before tougher screening procedures took effect May 1, that they are largely to blame for a $2 billion defense health budget hole Congress is scrambling to fill. In fiscal 2010, military outpatient pharmacy costs totaled $6.6 billion, with only $23 million spent on compound drugs. By fiscal 2014, outpatient pharmacy costs had risen to $7.7 billion but compound drugs costs soared to $515 million. In the first nine months of fiscal 2015, compound drug costs tripled again for TRICARE, to $1.7 billion, or more than 20 percent of the $8.2 billion TRICARE expects to spend on outpatient drugs the entire year.
For more details, see this Military Advantage blog post.