CVS Bails On National Chain Drug Association

Post Reply
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

CVS Bails On National Chain Drug Association

Post by Alpha8472 »

CVS is no longer a member of National Chain Drug Association. This is significant. CVS no longer believes that its profit comes from the drugstore side of its business. CVS now believes that its profit comes from its Pharmacy Benefit Manager side: CVS Caremark.

PBMs, which health insurers, employers, and the government hire to manage prescription benefits for their health plans. In the pharma ecosystem there is a broader movement to push the blame on rising drug costs on PBMs. CVS controls 80 percent of the PBM Market. CVS bought Humana, Aetna, Silverscript, Healthnet, Blue Shield of California etc. How is this not a monopoly?

CVS is looking out only for itself. CVS insurance plans are hostile towards any non-CVS pharmacy. Walgreens, Rite Aid, independent pharmacies, etc. are discriminated against by CVS. CVS does anything it can to make life miserable for any non-CVS pharmacy.

Patients with CVS health plans including CVS Caremark, Blue Shield of California, etc. have many restrictions. These are examples but not every health plan is exactly like this. For example, customers are limited to a 30 day supply at Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart, but not at CVS. At CVS, you can get a 90 day supply. Also, you can get your first few prescriptions of blood pressure medications at any pharmacy. Then afterwards you will be forced to use mail order. If you refuse to use mail order your blood pressure medications are no longer covered at Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart, etc. So your insurance is now useless unless you use mail order.

This is outrageous. What if you are suffering from sky high blood pressure and are on the verge of having a stroke. Sorry, your blood pressure medication is not covered. You have to pay full price or wait 5-7 days for CVS mail order. Or what if you are having chest pains and you need nitroglycerin tablets right away. Sorry, its not covered. You can wait for mail order or you can pay full price.

Not every health plan is like this. Some medicare plans such as Aetna do allow 90 day supplies but that is only because government run Medicare forces CVS to allow a 90 day supply for some plans. Private insurance plans run by CVS are another story and can have the 30 day limitation.

CVS realizes that it controls so many prescription drug plans that they can put other pharmacies out of business and funnel everyone to CVS mail order or to CVS pharmacies.

If customers cannot get prescriptions at Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc. then those drugstore chains are going to lose out on retail sales. This is going to cause many customers to go to CVS or mail order.

CVS knows that they can close many CVS pharmacies because their mail order business is much more profitable. CVS believes that the goals of a traditional retail-centric trade association are not in synch with its interests. Retail front end at CVS pharmacies is not where the money is to be made.

PBMs are responsible for figuring out your copays. Your $600 copay on medication is decided on by a PBM. In many cases, that is CVS Caremark. CVS Caremark is bringing in tons of money and is causing sky high drug prices. The company doesn't care. CVS Caremark is out to make a huge profit for itself. The government certainly isn't going to step in and say anything. CVS can charge people whatever it feels like.
veteran+
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor
Posts: 2233
Joined: January 3rd, 2015, 7:53 am
Has thanked: 1202 times
Been thanked: 71 times
Status: Offline

Re: CVS Bails On National Chain Drug Association

Post by veteran+ »

I get 90 day thru Pavilion and Blue here.
arizonaguy
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1107
Joined: July 12th, 2013, 6:07 pm
Been thanked: 35 times
Status: Offline

Re: CVS Bails On National Chain Drug Association

Post by arizonaguy »

I've actually found my mail order medications with CVS are ridiculously fast to arrive.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: CVS Bails On National Chain Drug Association

Post by storewanderer »

This was the whole point of what CVS did with buying Caremark and buying out so many drugstore chains. Less competition is never good for anyone but the large corporation. Now the large corporation CVS makes a ton of money on both the PBM side and the store side. The stores are pretty terrible, a joke almost, and it is evident selling merchandise is something they are wound up in and obviously not very interested in anymore. But the profitability of the company is driven by the Caremark+Pharmacy combination which is a huge money making formula.

In the late 90's the old Rite Aid CEO who cooked the books Martin Grass also understood this and one of the last acquisitions of the company before things fell apart there was of a PBM. Then they had to sell that PBM to stay afloat but my point is that CEO was a real visionary who saw the future and saw a way to make a ton of money by having PBM+Pharmacy together. But his crooked dealings killed his opportunity to make it happen. Enter CVS a decade later, they made it happen. And it has really worked.
Post Reply