Dec 10 2009
Controversy has erupted around the Board of the Teacher Retirement
System’s plan to vote on a $1 billion drug benefits contract on
Thursday. CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager that also owns the
country’s largest drugstore chain, currently contracts with TRS to
provide drug benefits for retirees. A coalition of groups is calling for
further study before any Board vote in the wake of reported service
problems with CVS Caremark, decisions by plans in Texas and other states
to drop CVS, and media reports that the company pushes seniors to fill
prescriptions at its own CVS drugstores despite higher costs.
At the TRS board meeting on Thursday, retiree group representatives will
testify about problems their members have encountered with CVS Caremark.
Independent pharmacists will discuss the unfair advantage the state
contract gives CVS drugstores in competing with their small businesses.
Alarmed About CVS Caremark is a Change to Win initiative to
educate consumers, health plan managers and trustees about the newly
merged CVS Caremark, now the country's largest pharmacy benefits manager
(PBM) and largest retail pharmacy chain. Our reports, CVS
Caremark: An Alarming Prescription and CVS
Caremark: An Alarming Merger, detail the troubling patterns
exhibited by both CVS and Caremark prior to their merger, and explores
the new risks presented by the merged entity CVS Caremark.