Cure CVS Now Blog
Change to Win chair and SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger issued the following statement regarding a meeting Wednesday with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz.
"We have asked the FTC to open a full-scale investigation of CVS Caremark's practices and re-examine the company's 2007 merger. The merger of the largest retail pharmacy (CVS) and the second-largest PBM (Caremark) has created the nation's largest provider of prescription services--and serious risks for consumers and health plans. The merged entity presents potential risks in such vital areas as patient privacy, value to health plans, conflicts of interest, and quality of service.
CVS Caremark now has access to patient prescription information on an unprecedented scale--handling almost 1 in 3 of all patient prescriptions in the country.
Change to Win represents workers in CVS Caremark plans that cover more than 10 million people. On behalf of these health plan members, Change to Win is greatly concerned that CVS Caremark could be exploiting its access to a massive amount of private patient information without meaningful consent or knowledge by plan participants.
We delivered to Chairman Leibowitz letters of concern about the merger from health plans and purchasing coalitions that cover more than two million individuals. These frontline payers for health care see the dangers of a pharmacy giant controlling the drug costs and data for their members.
I appreciate the FTC's consideration of our concerns, and Change to Win will continue to sound the alarm about CVS Caremark to safeguard the health and privacy of millions of health care consumers across the nation."
Posted by Alex G. on September 3, 2009, 10:32 AM
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Over on
Consumerist, an anonymous CVS pharmacist talks about the company's "ReadyFill" automatic prescription refill service. Customers can opt-in to the program and a computerized system will track which prescriptions are due to be refilled, calling customers to encourage them to come in to a CVS store.
At best, this is a convenient way to remember your prescriptions. At worst, it's an example of CVS using private patient information to sell more at its pharmacies. The automated program is supplemented by "store-generated calls about refill reminders" - that is, phone calls from pharmacists who are already busy filling prescriptions and talking to customers. From the Consumerist:
"In high volume stores, this can be over 100 people that have to be called. Every single employee hates these. They're incredibly stupid because people generally stop taking a medication for a good reason, but we're supposed to ask people if they want to refill it. One store once called a customer that had died. Oops."
The pharmacist goes on to explain that many stores, hoping to meet corporate-set quotas, have begun to enroll customers in ReadyFill without their knowledge. The source details higher enrollment rates in ReadyFill translate to higher bonuses for pharmacists, who are thus inclined to enroll as many people as possible, with or without their permission.
"I approached my district manager with the fact that the store was auto-enrolling prescriptions, which I felt could be an issue down the line. He didn't care because as soon as they started doing that, they started making the number needed to satisfy the metric."
This practice could mean problems for customers and their prescriptions, but more troubling is the fact that CVS can manipulate prescription information without a customer's knowledge or consent. Programs like ReadyFill aren't the only way CVS profits from prescription information: the company has
sold data on prescription drug purchases at its stores to third-party companies, and received
payments from drug makers for marketing activities conducted using this type of data.
Customers should be advised: who do you trust with your prescription information?
CVS Will Automatically Refill Your Prescription, Consent Be Damned [Consumerist]
Posted by Alex G. on August 12, 2009, 2:15 PM
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Worcester News Tonight reports on the rally at a Worchester, MA. CVS on Friday over pricing irregularities at CVS stores. In the report (found
here), several people present at the rally spoke about overcharging at CVS stores.
"CVS is by far the worst retailer in the state of Massacusetts for illegally overcharging customers. We've seen it here in Worcester," said Deanne Dworski-Riggs, of Cure CVS. She went on to say, "You know we've spoken with a former manager at CVS and they said they would rather pay the fines and continue to overcharge customers than address the problem."
One shopper interviewed for the report explained that she had been overcharged at CVS just the day before. "Yesterday I pay $3.49 for milk," she explained, "and they have a big sign for $2.89. Definitely they need to just have the right prices, just advertise the right prices, and when we go to the register, we pay for what we were told."
Worcester CVS stores caught overcharging [Worcester News Tonight]
Posted by Alex G. on July 27, 2009, 3:28 PM
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Representatives from Cure CVS testified today before a Massachusetts state senate joint committee hearing, urging elected leaders to uphold the state's item pricing laws. Multiple bills are under consideration by the legislature, and revisions could weaken item pricing laws which currently require food and grocery retailers to sell any item
in the store at the lowest price indicated on an item, sign or
advertisement. Revisions to the laws could restrict the state's power to protect consumers from
retailers that overcharge.
CVS Caremark Corp., the nation's largest pharmacy chain, is by far
the most penalized food retailer in the state for overcharging and other pricing violations, according to Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. And the overcharges aren't always just an oversight: some
Boston-area CVS stores are still overcharging, even after being notified of specific pricing violations.
"CVS gives us hundreds of reasons why lawmakers need to keep our state's item pricing laws intact," Faron McLurkin of Cure CVS said at today's hearing before the state senate. "Seven hundred and eleven reasons, to be precise. That's the number of overcharges state inspectors found at CVS last year."
Overcharges at CVS increased 67 percent from 2007 to 2008, indicating that CVS has failed to correct prior violations of state item pricing laws. On average, state inspectors found almost five times more overcharges per inspection at CVS stores than at all other retailers in the state.
Although CVS stores made up only 6.6 percent of all state pricing inspections in 2008, CVS's violations accounted for 32 percent of all overcharges caught by the state that year. That's almost one third of all the overcharges inspectors found in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation Undersecretary Barbara Anthony has ordered CVS to correct its illegal overcharging problems.
To learn more about CVS's pricing violations in Massachusetts, download a copy of Cure CVS's report
Your Total Comes To More than the Advertised Price: How CVS Hasn't Fixed Its Pricing Violation Problems in Massachusetts (PDF).
Posted by Alex G. on July 27, 2009, 2:01 PM
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Community members and activists rallied in Worcester, MA. on Friday calling on CVS to stop overcharging its customers.
Overcharges found at CVS stores in Massachusetts increased 67 percent from 2007 to 2008, indicating that the retailer has failed to correct prior violations of state item pricing laws. On average, Massachusetts inspectors found almost five times more overcharges per inspection at CVS stores than at all other retailers in the state. Although CVS stores made up only 6.6 percent of all state pricing inspections in 2008, CVS's violations accounted for 32 percent of all overcharges caught by the state that year. That's almost one third of all the overcharges inspectors found in Massachusetts.
Luz Ramirez, lead organizer at Neighbor to Neighbor, said at Friday's rally: "I've lived and worked in Worcester for almost 20 years and I know that residents of Worcester can't afford to pay any more than the advertised price on essentials like food and medicine."
Massachusetts Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation Undersecretary Barbara Anthony has ordered CVS to correct its illegal overcharging problems, and met with the company earlier this month over the issue.
Read more about CVS's ongoing pricing problems in Massachusetts in Cure CVS's recent report,
Your Total Comes to...More Than the Advertised Price: How CVS hasn't fixed its pricing violation problems in Massachusetts (PDF).
Posted by Alex G. on July 27, 2009, 11:17 AM
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CVS is the most penalized food retailer in Massachusetts for overcharging customers -- but now the state is ordering CVS to stop illegal overcharges.
WBZ-TV (CBS) in Boston reports that "in 2007 and 2008, no retailer paid more in fines for overcharging customers than CVS, according to data from the state's Office of Consumer Affairs."
"State inspectors found 425 instances of overcharging in 2007, and 711 in 2008. The state fines CVS $359,600 for the violations. The number of violations was significantly higher than those for other retailers."
"These problems are solvable. Other retailers have solved them. It takes training the labor force, it takes management initiative and oversight, but none of this is insolvable. And I think it's fair to say retailers understand that and now they really have to. The rubber's meeting the road and now they have to bring about results," said Barbara Anthony of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.
Watch the WBZ-TV coverage here:
http://wbztv.com/video/?id=78764@wbz.dayport.comOr read the full story here:
http://wbztv.com/local/cvs.shaws.overcharging.2.1079024.html
Posted by Alex G. on July 14, 2009, 1:49 PM
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The Kansas City Star recently visited area CVS stores to check for the presence of locked condom cases -- and its findings mirror those of our own Cure CVS surveys conducted in other markets across the country, indicating that CVS locks condoms disproportionately in communities of color. CVS's chief competitor, Walgreen's, has a corporate policy prohibiting locking up condoms in its stores.
Furthermore, the Kansas City Star investigation revealed that, contrary to CVS's claims, CVS does not always make smaller, three-pack boxes of condoms available without staff assistance, even in stores in which it locks up the larger quantity boxes.
UPDATE: The video above, from
NBC News in Kansas City, discusses how some community organizations are taking action on this issue.
Read the full article that appeared on the front page of today's Kansas City Star
here.
Read NBC Kansas City's coverage of the issue
here.
Posted by Alex G. on July 13, 2009, 3:29 PM
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Eight out of ten Boston-area CVS stores surveyed have failed to correct overcharges even after being notified of the errors according to
a study released on Thursday at a City Hall press conference. The study was conducted by Cure CVS, the same group that surveyed local CVS stores for instances of overcharging in April. Surveyors went back to some of the same CVS stores where they were overcharged two months ago and found in many cases that CVS had still not corrected the problem --surveyors were overcharged again on the same items.
"It is important to me that consumers in Boston are protected from unfair business practices, especially during these difficult economic times. People need to have the tools to protect themselves from being overcharged, and I have always supported item pricing and other reasonable consumer protections. I will continue to urge state lawmakers and the administration to ensure that every business in the Commonwealth plays by the rules," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
There's more...
Posted by Alex G. on June 23, 2009, 3:42 PM
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