PS Some people may interject that all retail is the same but I disagree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CVS/pharmacy#Controversies
Controversies
A CVS location (#7606) in
Austin, Texas, across from the
University of Texas at Austin
[edit] Elensys
In 1998,
The Washington Post reported that CVS appeared to be sharing
prescription drug information with the
Woburn-based marketing company,
Elensys. According to the Post, Elensys received information on specific prescription drugs that individual CVS customers had purchased and used this information to send targeted direct mailings urging customers to renew prescriptions and promoting other products in which they might be interested. CVS and Elensys argued that there were no privacy issues because Elensys was acting solely as a
contractor to CVS, and because the purpose of the mailings was to educate consumers. CVS claimed that it never shared customers'
medical histories with Elensys (despite the
Washington Post's indirect evidence that they had). George D. Lundberg, editor of the
Journal of the American Medical Association, called the practice "a gross invasion" of
privacy. Following a firestorm of criticism and complaints by consumers, CVS discontinued the practice.
[edit] Boston prescriptions
During 2005 a rash of prescription mistakes came to light in some of CVS Corporation's
Boston-area stores. An investigation confirmed 62 errors or quality problems going back to 2002. In February 2006, the state Board of Pharmacy announced that the non-profit Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) would monitor all Massachusetts stores for the next two years.
[7]
[edit] Executives accused of bribing Senator
Former CVS executives John R. Kramer and Carlos Ortiz were charged with bribery, conspiracy, and fraud (including mail fraud) by a federal grand jury for allegedly paying State Senator John A. Celona (D-RI) to act as a "consultant" for the company. Between February 2000 and September 2003, CVS paid Celona $1,000 a month, and he received tickets to golf outings and sporting events and compensation for travel to Florida and California. In August 2005, he pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges, and in January 2007, he was fined a record $130,000 by the Rhode Island Ethics Committee. The investigation was led by the FBI and the Rhode Island State Police, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gerard B. Sullivan and Dulce Donovan. Additional information is available in a press release from the FBI's Boston field office.
[8]
[edit] 20/20
A segment on
20/20 accused CVS,
Walgreens and
Rite Aid among other pharmacies, of making various prescription dispensing errors. This segment aired in March 2007 and was called "ABC News '20/20' Undercover Pharmacy Investigation". CVS responded by claiming they have designed and invested millions of dollars in a comprehensive quality assurance program.
[9]
[edit] Texas lawsuit over illegally dumping patient information
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has sued CVS as of April 2007, for illegally dumping confidential patient information while closing an acquired Eckerd store in
Liberty, Texas. CVS is accused of breaking the 2005 Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act. There are also other possible violations under the violations under Chapter 35 of the Business and Commerce Code.
[10]
[edit] Deceptive business practices
In February 2008, CVS settled a large civil lawsuit for deceptive business practices. The
Kaiser Family Foundation reported:
[11]
CVS Caremark has agreed to a a $38.5 million settlement in a multi-state civil deceptive-practices lawsuit against pharmacy benefit manager Caremark filed by 28 attorneys general, the
Chicago Tribune reports.
[12] The attorneys general, led by Lisa Madigan (D) of Illinois and Douglas Ganslar (D) of Maryland, allege that Caremark "engaged in deceptive business practices" by informing physicians that patients or health plans could save money if patients were switched to certain brand-name prescription drugs (Miller,
Chicago Tribune, 2/14).
[12]
However, the switch often saved patients and health plans only small amounts or increased their costs, while increasing Caremark's profits, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) said (Levick,
Hartford Courant, 2/15).
[13] Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett (R) said the PBM kept discounts and rebates that should have been passed on to employers and patients (Levy,
AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 2/14).
[14] In addition, Caremark did not "adequately inform doctors" of the full financial effect of the switch and did not disclose that the switch would increase Caremark's profits, the lawsuit alleges (
Chicago Tribune, 2/14).
[12]
...The settlement prohibits Caremark from requesting prescription drug switches in certain cases, such as when the cost to the patient would be higher with the new prescription drug; when the original prescription drug's patent will expire within six months; and when patients were switched from a similar prescription drug within the previous two years (
Hartford Courant, 2/15).
[13] Patients also have the ability to decline a switch from the prescribed treatment to the prescription offered by the pharmacy under the settlement, Madigan said (
Bloomberg News/Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/15).
[14]
Caremark has been involved in a number of health fraud and Medicare fraud scandals[3]. Reported on June 17, 1995: "In the second-largest settlement ever for health-care fraud, Caremark International Inc. has agreed to pay $161 million in criminal and civil fines for paying kickbacks to doctors and submitting false billings to the government." [4] MSNBC report on CVS Caremark merger, suggesting another reason for the push to merge with CVS: "The Caremark shareholder vote had been delayed twice because of a pension fund shareholder's lawsuit that claimed Caremark executives struck a bargain that favored company insiders over regular shareholders. Although the petition failed to stop the CVS deal, it revealed documents showing that Crawford negotiated jobs for himself, his son and other executives, won protection for the Caremark board from an ongoing investigation into backdating of stock options and guaranteed at least some Caremark directors would serve on the new company's board." [5]
[edit] Cigarettes
Some governmental and health organizations have criticized pharmacies -- including CVS -- for selling cigarettes in their general merchandise.
[15]
