Cigna Pharmacy Update: An update on Kroger and its affiliated pharmacies

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Sourced from Cigna Broker Communication from 10/14/22:

Kroger and its affiliated pharmacies recently notified Cigna that they would not participate in Cigna’s Medicare Advantage (MAPD) and Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) network, effective January 1, 2023. Please note, 2022 is not impacted.

We understand that the annual enrollment period (AEP) begins tomorrow and the timing of this announcement is less than ideal. However, we were only recently notified of the contract change with Kroger for 2023 and we felt it was important to share this information with you and your brokers regardless of the pre-AEP timing. We’ve sent communications to brokers licensed within each impacted market that includes the name(s) of the Kroger pharmacy or affiliate impacted by this change. Attached is a complete list of Kroger Pharmacy Affiliates for your reference.

As you can imagine, our AEP materials were prepared well in advance. We are diligently working to update the CMS Plan Finder, sales kits, Cigna’s online provider directory, and other online tools. In fact, updates to the online tools will be made by October 24.

We are doing everything we can to make this transition as smooth as possible for our customers. While we understand the disruption, Cigna Medicare has more than 63,000 network pharmacies available nationwide, which are listed in our online provider directory. Here are a few other large pharmacy chains that continue to be available to our customers:
• Walgreens
• Walmart
• Publix
• Rite Aid
• Winn-Dixie

Mail order is also available, delivering prescriptions right to customers’ mailboxes.

To provide you some insight into our member outreach strategy, beginning November 1, we will notify customers who have used a Kroger pharmacy in the past six months that Kroger and its affiliated pharmacies are terminating. In addition to the letter, we will actively engage customers through proactive, outbound calls to help them find an in-network pharmacy nearby. Our customer service team is also prepared to offer customers convenient alternative pharmacies for them to use

 

VIEW THE Affiliated pharmacies owned and operated by Kroger HERE