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CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. were sued by California customers who accused the drugstore operators of charging co-payments for certain prescription drugs that exceed the cost of medicines.
CVS, the largest U.S. pharmacy chain by number of stores, overbilled consumers who used insurance to pay for some generic drugs and wrongfully hid the fact that the medicines' cash price was cheaper, Megan Schultz said in her lawsuit. Schultz said in one case she paid $166 for a generic drug that would have cost only $92 if she'd known to pay cash.
[...] In her suit, Shultz accused CVS of clawing back her co-pay because the chain was in cahoots with the pharmacy benefit managers who got the extra money. The practice was part of CVS's agreements with benefit managers, such as Express Scripts Holding Co. and CVS Caremark, according to the suit filed Monday in federal court in Rhode Island. CVS is based in that state.
"CVS, motivated by profit, deliberately entered into these contracts, dedicating itself to the secret scheme that kept customers in the dark about the true price'' of drugs they purchased, Schultz's lawyers said in the suit, which is seeking group status.
[...] The lawsuits follow at least 16 other cases around the U.S. targeting drugstore chains' alleged co-pay clawback practices. The clawback occurs when patients hand over co-payments set by a pharmacy benefit manager that exceed the actual cash cost of the drug. The benefit managers pocket the difference, according to the complaints.
Most patients never realize there's a cheaper cash price because of clauses in contracts between pharmacies and benefit managers that bar the drugstore from telling people there's a lower-cost way to pay, according to the complaints.
[...] The cases are Megan Schultz v. CVS Health Corporation, 17-cv-359, U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island (Providence); and David Grabstald v. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., 17-5789, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
Source: Bloomberg
Also at The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and NBCNews
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Saturday August 12 2017, @09:21PM (3 children)
The Bloomberg, didn't bother with the others who probably just cut/pasted, article was all emotion to push the plaintiff (and the NGOs behind them) agenda and almost entirely fact free. This is how the MSM spins The Narrative with fake news. There was no news there, only rabble rousing.
Journalists would have dug into the press release they were given to propagate and added some facts. What exactly IS the relationship between big pharma, the "pharmacy benefit managers" and the retail chains? Who is hosing who, where does the money go? The Blue Check Mafia lacks even the most basic journalistic instincts, like knowing to always "follow the money." This article is so one sided that we don't even get a stated (i.e. corporate PR dept bullshit babble) reason for the policy from the other sides. And can we notice the elephant in the room here? Who the Hell is paying $166 for a drug if they have real insurance? Is that really a thing in CA? What is the real story here? If you leave the emotion out, the article raises far more questions than it answers.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday August 12 2017, @10:47PM
It's not journalists working there, it's Goebbels clones being commanded from ûber-bofh of propaganda minsterium.
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Saturday August 12 2017, @11:40PM (1 child)
They're accusing CVS, so I tend to believe them. When they took over the local store from Longs I investigated a few of their house brand offerings (compared to the Longs brand). They kept about the same size bottle, but with a changed shape. They shaved a hair off the price, but decreased the number of pills in the bottle by 1/5.
I went elsewhere. I still go elsewhere. When they sell something, I expect it to be some flavor of scam. (Sometimes it doesn't appear to be any worse scam than elsewhere, admittedly, but that's what I expect. I've essentially never found it to be a better deal.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @12:41PM
Probably a good plan.
*Posted from the CVS corporate headquarters*