Shame, shame, shame! Thou fillest a prescription of evil CVS!

The letter, covered in today’s New York Times, describes how CVS has used their role as a pharmacy benefit manager (which simply tells a pharmacy whether your health plan covers your prescription or not) to gain customers over other pharmacies. The letter notes how recent investigations by the FTC and 24 Attorneys General highlight a number of unfair practices designed to switch consumers to CVS pharmacies.

For instance, CVS-Caremark has allegedly charged consumers higher co-payments at non-CVS pharmacies. Also, by listing the organization’s full name “CVS Caremark” on the benefits card provided to beneficiaries of the health plans Caremark serves, some consumers have been deceived into thinking that they can only fill their prescriptions at CVS pharmacies.

These guys could have worked for the Bush administration making people believe Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11!

CEH – Consumer Watchdog Finds Illegal Jewelry

Oakland, CA-The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) announced today that it has found high lead levels in jewelry purchased from major retailers, including WalMart, Banana Republic, Lane Bryant, Express, Anchor Blue, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Longs Drugs (now part of CVS Caremark pharmacies). The California Attorney General yesterday sent a notice of violation of the jewelry law to WalMart, and has recently notified four of the other retailers (Lane Bryant, Express, Anchor Blue, and Longs) about their illegal jewelry. CEH is notifying Banana Republic today, and recently notified Abercrombie and Fitch that their jewelry violates the state’s Prop 65 consumer protection law.

I wonder if these corporations even realized that there were state laws in California regulating lead levels in jewelry?

A surface coating on a WalMart store-brand green frog charm for a child’s necklace tested as high as 37% lead, more than 600 times over the standard set by the state law that was developed from CEH’s landmark January 2006 settlement with the jewelry industry. The surface coating has variable lead levels, with some pieces testing at more than three times the legal limit.

Will any of these corporations have any comment about this?

I  blogged about something similar recently actually. It turns out the the U.S. 1st Circuit of Appeals agrees that this sort of invasion of privacy is not right.

Data-mining companies have no constitutional right to buy prescription data in order to help pharmaceutical companies lobby doctors to prescribe their brand-name drugs, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The 3-0 decision by the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals re-instates New Hampshire’s 2006 ban on the commercial use of prescription information which is routinely bought from insurers and pharmacy benefit managers by data mining companies. That information includes the names of the doctor, patient and drug.

Most likely the next step for Big Phrma will be to lobby statehouses to not pass laws similar to that of New Hampshire’s.