USMRoP Tricare Alert (Mercury Drug) Update 1

On 16 October 2012 we posted a caution about issues with claims from Mercury Drug that we were previously told were all certified at the corporate level.

For the previous three years, and even before the so called corporate level certification, the TRICARE Management Activity’s (TMA) claims contractor accepted Mercury Drug store receipts without a complete physical address printed on the receipt. In October 2012 beneficiaries found claims were being denied because the contractor was claiming they were unable to confirm that the Mercury store was certified due to the missing address. This was confusing for two reasons; the missing address was not previously an issue and all Mercury stores were supposed to be certified.

After more than a month of back and forth emails with TMA, they claim there are no changes in policy and therefore refuse to issue a policy statement with regard to these changes. They cite the TRICARE Operations Manuel Ch 24, Sec 9, para 6.6.2. (6.6 The following minimal information is required on each overseas claim prior to payment: 6.6.2 Complete beneficiary and host nation provider name and address.) They also stated that in spite of their claim that Mercury Drug is certified at the corporate level they still spend millions of dollars to require that their contractor visit every store where a claim is filed to take pictures and obtain copies of business licenses and tax documents. Therefore the claims contractor must have a physical address to determine if the particular store has been certified or needs to be certified.

So the de facto policy of previously accepting Mercury Drug claims without a physical address is being changed, claiming it never existed.

To meet this changed requirement beneficiaries will need to do one of the following:

1.      If the standard cash register receipt contains the physical address of the store, no action is required.

2.      If the standard cash register receipt DOES NOT contain the physical address of the store, do one of the following:

a.       Ask a store clerk to provide the physical address and either print it on the copy of the receipt sent with the claim or include it in a narrative submitted with the claim.

b.      Go to the Mercury Drug corp. web site and obtain the physical address and submit as outlined in 2.a. above. https://www.mercurydrug.com/cgi-bin/storelocation.py

c.       Ask for a hand written official receipt that contains the physical address on the letter head.

Feel free to contact USMRoP with questions or suggestions at .