Attorneys are accusing the company of deliberately inflating prices for generic drugs.
Bloomberg News
Attorneys representing CVS Health Corp.CVS -0.42% pharmacy customers are accusing the company of deliberately inflating prices for generic drugs.
A lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco alleges that CVS CVSG.LN -0.38% customers enrolled in third-party health plans are paying ”significantly more” in co-payments for many generic drugs than customers enrolled in the company’s Health Savings Pass program.
CVS promotes Health Savings Pass as a way for people who either do not have insurance or choose not to be insured to access hundreds of generic drugs at discounted prices. After paying an annual fee of $15 to enroll in the program, customers can purchase 90-day supplies of drugs for $11.99.
Represented by the Hausfeld law firm, the named plaintiffs are seven CVS customers from California, New York, Texas Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
“We’ve seen people who pay $20 for a 30-day supply as their co-payments on a drug that was $11.99 for a 90-day supply had they been in the (discount program),” Kristen Broz, an attorney with Hausfeld, told the Associated Press.
Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman for the Rhode Island-based company, told Law Blog he couldn’t comment on the lawsuit but said “co-pays for prescription medications are determined by a patient’s prescription coverage plan,” not by a CVS pharmacy.
“Health Savings Pass information, including program enrollment material, the annual enrollment fee, and the cost of eligible generic 90-day prescriptions, are publicly available,” he said.
The lawsuit follows a campaign waged by labor unions who accused then-named CVS Caremark of charging federal employees higher prices for generic drugs than what walk-in customers paid. The company at the time said the claims were misleading
