OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Insurance Department is seeking to sanction a national pharmacy chain for allegedly steering Oklahoma patients to fill prescriptions at their drugstores in violation of state law.
Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready announced Monday that he filed an administrative action to penalize CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefit manager, for directing its patients to use the company’s in-person and mail-order pharmacies instead of other drugstores, despite previously being sanctioned for such practices.
Mulready said CVS Caremark is also knowingly spreading misinformation to its Oklahoma customers in violation of state law.
Through the administrative action, Mulready is seeking to “censure, suspend, place on probation or revoke” the license of the pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM. He’s also asking to fine CVS Caremark for each violation of the Patient’s Right to Pharmacy Choice Act, a 2019 state law that sought to rein in PBMs.
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Between November 2021 and late February 2023, the Insurance Department received more than 100 complaints from Oklahomans who say CVS Caremark told them they were required to fill their prescriptions at one of their affiliated pharmacies, according to documents filed by the state agency.
Earlier this year, the state and CVS Caremark entered into an agreement for the company to take corrective action.
But the situation compounded when CVS Caremark told some self-insured employers it would no longer approve 90-day prescriptions for their employees. It’s unclear how many Oklahomans have been caught in limbo by the change that pertains to employees of large out-of-state companies.
Mulready said he expressed doubts when company representatives told him the problem with 90-day prescriptions can’t be fixed until next year. The company is still filling 90-day prescriptions for other Oklahomans.
The Insurance Department’s administrative filing gives several examples from March in which patients reportedly were told the state does not allow for the filling of 90-day prescriptions unless someone goes through the CVS mail-order pharmacy.
Mulready said that was an example of the misinformation the company is spreading.
“There is nothing in our laws or our rules that do not allow for 90-day prescriptions,” he said.
Mulready said the Insurance Department is pursuing sanctions because CVS Caremark has already been warned and fined for previous violations of the Patient’s Right to Pharmacy Choice Act. He called it a drastic step but said he doesn’t know what else to do to get the company’s attention.
A spokesman for CVS Caremark did not respond to a request for comment as of press time. But the company told other media outlets in a statement that it is working to develop a long-term solution to providing 90-day prescriptions to its Oklahoma customers on out-of-state insurance plans.
The company has not addressed the Insurance Department’s filing.
An administrative law judge will hear the department’s case on May 25.
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