HIV Patients Suing CVS Over New Prescription Rules

By Staff Writers, DALLAS VOICE

February 26, 2018

https://www.dallasvoice.com/hiv-patients-suing-cvs-new-prescription-rules-10249763.html

Four HIV-positive men — all listed as John Doe —filed a class action lawsuit against CVS Health and its subsidiaries alleging that the pharmacy “disregarded both federal and state insurance laws by forcing patients to fill their prescriptions at CVS locations or through CVS’s mail order, or dole out thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs,” according to reports by HIV-Plus Magazine.

The four allege that the CVS Caremark benefit plan suddenly stopped covering their prescription costs at certain pharmacies, “covertly leading them back to CVS pharmacies and denied them basic pharmacy comforts — such as privacy.

The suit was filed Feb. 16 in the Northern District of California.

One plaintiff said that he got no written notice of the policy change and “scramble into action since I only had a seven-day supply remaining.”

When his medicine did arrive via mail order, it sat out in the “baking sun,” he said.

As the magazine noted, “Daily HIV antiretroviral combos are designed to be taken daily, and missing your precsribed dosage can worsen your health outcomes. It’s the nature of HIV virus, given that it can mutate and rapidly develop resistance to drugs when days are skipped.

The plaintiffs are represented by Alan Mansfield of Whatley Kallas LLP.

A similar lawsuit was filed in the Central District of California the same day.