• NCPA: NCPA Joins Class Action Suit Against GoodRx; CVS Caremark Corp.; Express Scripts, Inc.; MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc.; and Navitus Health Solutions, LLC

• NCPA: NCPA Leads Retail Pharmacy in a Class Action Suit Against Change Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group, and Optum for Data Breach and Losses

Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA)

The Supreme Court of the United States issued its landmark ruling in Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), determining whether community pharmacies are protected from abusive payment practices.

The unanimous (8 to 0) decision ruled in favor of the interests of patients and community pharmacies, who have been fighting for years to regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the controversial middlemen that manage prescription drug benefits for health insurers, Medicare Part D drug plans, and large employers. With this ruling, states will have greater authority to protect their local businesses and their patients from PBM overreach.

• NCPA: Independent Pharmacy Groups Back Iowa PBM Regulation in Federal Court

• NCPA: NCPA Urges SCOTUS to Reject Radical Change to Legal Procedure That Could Limit Class Action Cases

• Brief of Arkansas Pharmacists Association, National Community Pharmacists Association, American Pharmacist Association, National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, and Fifty-one other Pharmacist Associations

• NCPA, APhA, TPA file brief supporting Tennessee PBM regulation law

• NCPA, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Tennessee Pharmacists Association filed a joint amicus brief in a federal court in support of a 2021 Tennessee law regulating PBMs

• NCPA and Arkansas Pharmacists Join Legal Fight to Preserve Law Barring Companies from Operating PBMs and Pharmacies in the State

Osterhaus Pharmacy v. Express Scripts Inc.

Plaintiffs (Osterhaus and 6 other pharmacies) allege that ESI (and Evernorth) executed three separate agreements (the “Agreements”) with competing PBMs—Prime, Benecard, and Magellan (the “Co-Conspirators”). Each Co-Conspirator, negotiating individually, previously agreed to charge the pharmacies less for services and reimburse them more for drugs than ESI. Each then agreed with ESI to charge pharmacies ESI’s higher prices for services and pay pharmacies ESI’s lower reimbursement rates. Plaintiffs allege that the Agreements violate §1 of the Sherman Act as each is a horizontal price fixing agreement designed to (1) suppress the Co-Conspirators’ drug reimbursement rates and (2) inflate the Co-Conspirators’ prices for administrative services. The case survived a motion to dismiss by ESI and is in discovery.

Osterhaus Pharmacy v. CVS Health, Caremark, and Aetna

The National Community Pharmacists Association loudly applauded a class action lawsuit filed against vertically conslidated CVS Health, Caremark, and Aetna that aims to recoup for independent pharmacies millions of dollars in what the lawyers say are wrongful back-end penalties for Medicare Part D prescriptions, otherwise known as pharmacy direct and indirect remuneration fees.

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Oklahoma:

• Drummond holds CVS Caremark accountable with $5M settlement

• Drummond orders OptumRX to stop illegal clawbacks

• Drummond secures $32M in settlement with CVS Caremark

Rhode Island:

• Attorney General Neronha announces series of sweeping actions to address health care crisis

Minnesota:

• Attorney General Ellison leads effort asking Supreme Court to rule on states’ authority to regulate pharmacy benefit managers

• Attorney General Ellison asks congress to prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from owning or operating pharmacies

Michigan:

• AG Nessel Files Lawsuit Against Two Pharmacy Benefit Managers for Anticompetitive Practices

Vermont:

• Attorney General Clark Sues Pharmacy Benefit Managers for Illegally Driving Up Prescription Drug Costs

Ohio:

• Ohio Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against PBMs

• NCPA - Class Action Complaint v. Change Health Care Inc., Optum Inc., and UnitedHealth Group

• NCPA - Rutledge v. PCMA, No. 18-540 (U.S.): One Pager on Unanimous Decision Reversing Eighth Circuit

• C-SPAN - Rutledge, Attorney General of Arkansas v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association Oral Argument

• Brief of Arkansas Pharmacists Association, National Community Pharmacists Association, American Pharmacists Association, National Alliance Of State Pharmacy Associations, and Fifty-One Other Pharmacist Associations As Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioner

• NCPA - Analysis of Rutledge v. PCMA

• Rutledge v. PCMA: 15 Years in the Making

• Brief of National Community Pharmacists Association and Arkansas Pharmacists Association as Amici Curiae in Support of Defendants-Appellants and Reversal

• Talk Business & Politics: U.S. Supreme Court hearing state appeal on pharmacy benefit managers Tuesday

• Podcast: Looking Back: Five Years Since Rutledge

• NCPA: Boom! FTC Squeezes Concessions from Cigna’s Express Scripts
• NCPA: NCPA Laments SCOTUS Decision to Punt on Oklahoma PBM Reform
• NCPA: NCPA Urges SCOTUS to Reject Radical Change to Legal Procedure That Could Limit Class Action Cases
• NCPA: NCPA Applauds Key Decision in Landmark Class Action Case Against CVS

• Whistleblower Obtains a $289,873,500 False Claims Act Decision Against CVS