CVS overcharging customers with insurance for prescription drugs, federal lawsuit says



Already facing a class action over the price of generic drugs in San Francisco federal court, retail pharmacy giant CVS has again become the target of a similar complaint in federal court in Chicago.

Robert Podgorny and Kevin P. Cauley are accusing the Rhode Island-based pharmacy chain of consumer fraud. They seek certification as a class, a jury trial, damages and injunctive relief.

The complaint, filed Sept. 17, pinpoints the issue to November 2008, when CVS created its Health Savings Pass program. CVS designed the HSP program, which discounts some 400 generic prescription drugs for uninsured customers who pay cash, to help it weather competition from larger retailers with in-house pharmacies, such as Wal-Mart and Target.

According to the complaint, those prices should have constituted CVS’ “usual and customary price, a figure used in the claim and copay calculation process for customers who have third-party prescription drug coverage. For customers with insurance, the amount of the copay is not to exceed the “usual and customary” price.

However, when submitting claims for insured customers who are buying generic prescription drugs, the complaint alleges, “CVS submits knowingly and intentionally falsely inflated ‘usual and customary prices’ to third-party health plans and overcharges customers paying for generic prescription drugs with insurance and a copay.”

The allegations are similar to those levied in the San Francisco complaint filed at the end of June, which Bloomberg reported is based on the belief customers who buy prescriptions through third-party plans pay higher prices than those paying cash.

CVS offers the HSP price as the cash price to nonmembers, and it’s the most common price paid by customers using cash. Yet CVS continues to submit to insurance companies the full retail price as “usual and customary.” This continues, the complaint alleges, because both the third-party insurers and the insured customers, “are not privy to what prices CVS charges its uninsured cash customers, including its HSP customers, and what percentage of CVS’ cash customers pay each price.”

Since 2008, CVS has taken in more than $46 billion in copays from insured customers.

Podgorny, of Illinois, and Cauley, of Pennsylvania, each had private insurance and purchased from CVS generic prescription drugs that — were they HSP members — would have cost them $11.99 for each 90-day supply, starting in 2011. Yet during 2014 and 2015, Podgorny paid $22.08 for a 90-day supply of one drug and $17.11 for the other. Cauley paid $43.75 in copays for one-month supplies of his prescription.

The complaint seeks national class and state subclass designations, all open to people who purchased generic prescription drugs from CVS through private insurance as far back as November 2008. The classes are believed to involve millions of CVS customers.

“The 400 or so generic prescription drugs included in the HSP program are among some of the most commonly prescribed generic drugs” for a wide range of conditions, the plaintiffs said in their complaint.

The formal allegations are violations of the Rhode Island Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, and three counts each of fraud, constructive fraud, negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys include Clinton A. Krislov and Christopher M. Hack, of Krislov & Associates, of Chicago, and Elizabeth C. Pritzker, Jonathan K. Levine and Shiho Yamamoto, of Prtizker Levine, of Oakland.

http://cookcountyrecord.com/stories/510638854-cvs-overcharging-cust...

Views: 501

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Burbia commented on Cryptocurrency's group Video Archive
2 hours ago
Doc Vega posted a blog post
9 hours ago
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post How Many Clues Did You Need To Figure out the Covid scare was Bogus? Revisiting Stupidity
"cheeki kea you are spot on. It won't be until the elephant on Wall Street is as high as the…"
12 hours ago
Sandy posted photos
23 hours ago
harrisseo is now a member of 12160 Social Network
Sunday
Doc Vega's 4 blog posts were featured
Sunday
tjdavis posted a blog post
Saturday
tjdavis posted videos
Saturday
cheeki kea left a comment for Gordon Freeman
"Greetings and welcome to you Gordon it's great to have you join us all here."
Friday
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
Friday
cheeki kea posted a photo
Friday
cheeki kea commented on Doc Vega's blog post How Many Clues Did You Need To Figure out the Covid scare was Bogus? Revisiting Stupidity
"For those trapped in mass formation the ugly truth and all the clues will not be realised until the…"
Friday
cheeki kea favorited Doc Vega's blog post How Many Clues Did You Need To Figure out the Covid scare was Bogus? Revisiting Stupidity
Friday
tjdavis posted a video

Dare to Dream/Dare to Build

As we enter the month of Av we intensify our traditional mourning for the Holy Temple, but are we really in touch with what we are mourning for? Are we ready...
Thursday
Gordon Freeman is now a member of 12160 Social Network
Mar 31
Burbia posted a photo
Mar 31
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post How Many Clues Did You Need To Figure out the Covid scare was Bogus? Revisiting Stupidity
"The Chinese sent more than 100 thousand visitors to the US after the failure of the Wuhan lab to…"
Mar 30
Sandy posted photos
Mar 30
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post This is What Pisses Me Off-How About You?
"Burbia! Thank you for the video, yes Texas aint puttin up with this shit! "
Mar 29
Burbia commented on Doc Vega's blog post This is What Pisses Me Off-How About You?
"This is encouraging."
Mar 28

© 2026   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted