Should drugstore chains own pharmacy benefits managers? MedCity (afternoon) read, May 13, 2009

WOONSOCKET, Rhode Island — When drugstore chain CVS said in 2006 that it would buy CareMark Rx — one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers — critics complained that the combination could create a conflict of interests, according to the Wall Street Journal Health blog.

Here’s the potential conflict: CVS could use CareMark and its business to steer customers to its retail stores. And that could lead to higher prescription prices for customers.

That concern has continued to fester and broke through the surface this week at the same time a similar corporate marriage proposal — Express Scripts and the pharmacy benefits management business of health insurer Wellpoint — is being considered by the Federal Trade Commission.

CVS CareMark competitors are crying foul over a policy change at the Woonsocket, R.I., pharmacy company, according to the Wall Street Journal story (subscription required) that’s behind the blog entry.

CVS CareMark has told its pharmacy-benefit patients in letters that the company is raising co-payments for some who fill their prescriptions at other pharmacies. That is, if patients want to get their full pharmacy benefit, they must fill their prescriptions at CVS CareMark.

The letters appear to relate to a progam called “Maintenance Choice” under which patients buy a 90-day medication supply through the company’s mail-order pharmacy, the Journal said. In some letters sent as recently as February, CVS CareMark tells patients their prescription costs could rise to 50 percent the cost of their drugs (from 25 percent) if they shopped other pharmacies, it said.

Competitors and a trade organization for independent pharmacists were expected to hand over the letters to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz today, the Journal said.

More stories worth a read:

• Johns Hopkins Hospital at center of identity theft probe (Baltimore Sun)
• Staff shortages in labs may put patients at risk (Wall Street Journal; subscription required)
• Idea on Hill: Taxing health benefits (Wall Street Journal; subscription required)
• Medtronic launches clinical trial to improve quality of care for implantable defibrillator patients (BusinessWire)
• Health authorities ready to limit flu drug use (Reuters)
• Cleveland Clinic wins Ohio EPA’s OK for Twinsburg medical campus (Crain’s Cleveland Business)
• University Hospitals says its charity care increased 16 percent last year to $195 million (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
• Rate MDs and other internet physician rating sites (Dr. RW blog)