CVS Caremark told state officials Monday that it will continue its discount drug program in Connecticut, after threatening to end the program two months earlier.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Monday that CVS Caremark — which was considering ending its health savings pass pharmacy discount program — informed her that the program will continue.
The company’s decision comes after Rell wrote company officials in June questioning whether canceling the discount program might be an attempt by CVS to avoid complying with a new state law that requires pharmacies to give patients using taxpayer-funded Medicaid the same savings given to the public.
The law requires pharmacies to charge Medicaid the lowest drug price offered to consumers and links those prices to savings and discount programs such as the CVS Health Savings Pass program.
With the Health Savings Pass program, consumers pay $10 a year to fill a 90-day prescription of one of more than 400 generic drugs at a CVS pharmacy for $9.99, CVS said. The drugs treat conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Rell received a letter today from Elizabeth S. Wingate, senior vice president of CVS Caremark, who said the company had decided “after much consideration” that it will not suspend the Health Savings Pass program.
“We will work with (the state Department of Social Services) in the near future to resolve any issues related to the application of CVS discount program pricing to state Medicaid reimbursement,” Wingate said in the letter.
Rell said the decision is “a victory for Connecticut – a victory for consumers, who count on discount programs like the Health Savings Pass, and a victory for taxpayers, who will benefit from the savings our state will achieve under the new law.”
