CVS sues state to block release of report on its drug pricing

July 16, 2018

CVS Caremark is suing the Ohio Department of Medicaid to block it from releasing the full report detailing how the pharmacy middleman charged taxpayers three to six times as much to process prescription drugs for the poor and disabled as the industry standard.

"The disclosure of proprietary information in the Caremark agreements would be devastating to Caremark's entire nationwide business model," CVS attorneys argued in an 18-page request for a temporary restraining order filed Monday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

The "strategies and processes used by Caremark in Ohio are closely related to the strategies and processes used by Caremark nationwide,” the pharmacy giant argued in its filing.

At the request of The Dispatch, and over the objections of CVS, Department of Medicaid officials planned to release the commissioned report on Tuesday. Medicaid officials previously released an executive summary, arguing that the full report contained proprietary information and could not be released under state public record laws.

“Our preference is to always be as transparent as possible, but the department did not release the full report from HealthPlan Data Solutions out of concern that information or analysis contained in the report was…confidential and proprietary,” Medicaid Director Barbara Sears wrote in a letter to Gary Rutherford of the consulting firm hired to conduct the study.