PROTEST EXPRESS SCRIPTS
When: Friday May 17, 2024
Time: 09:00 AM – 01:00 PM CDT
Where the Public sidewalk in front of Express Scripts HQ
Address: 1 Express Way, St Louis, MO
Please share with everyone you know 
ON MAY 17, 2024, PATIENTS, CAREGIVERS, COMMUNITY MEMBERS, PHARMACISTS, PHYSICIANS, ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS WILL COME TOGETHER TO BOLDLY TAKE A STAND AGAINST ONE OF THE THREE LARGEST PHARMACY BENEFIT MANAGERS AND MAIL ORDER PHARMACIES IN THE NATION, EXPRESS SCRIPTS!
Many patients across the nation are forced or steered to Express Scripts against their will as it is the only option of coverage allowed by the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) or insurance company. Express Scripts is a PBM and mail order pharmacy. Express Scripts often uses their own PBM to steer patients to their own pharmacy. Patients have faced life-threatening delays, interruptions in treatment, and some have been forced to receive medications such as room temperature medications not stored at the temperatures proven safe by drug manufacturers as the only option of coverage.
Express Scripts also uses their PBM portion of their business to restrict access to medications by restricting medications on the list of covered medications. Physicians are hiring additional staff to deal with long exhaustive obstacle courses to obtain the medications needed for their patients.
Express Scripts has a 1-star rating on the Better Business Bureau that highlights this Pattern of Complaints:
“Better Business Bureau is advising consumers to use caution when considering doing business with Express Scripts. BBB has received a pattern of consumer complaints alleging delays or failure to ship correct prescriptions or medications; failure to accept returns or medications which were shipped in error; failure to issue refunds; debiting credit or debit cards for prescriptions not shipped and poor customer service.”
When patients are so graciously allowed by their PBM to use their local pharmacies, PBMs like Express Scripts also oversee reimbursements to competitor pharmacies & often reimburse competitor pharmacies below their cost, causing closures of local pharmacies in the most underserved rural and urban areas across America.
Upon advocating for regulation, legislation, & protection from these pharmacies, advocates find themselves against one of the wealthiest lobbyist organizations in America, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) that has in the last year doubled the amount they’re investing in lobbying by the millions. The Boards of Pharmacy also often have strong ties and even members sitting in regulatory positions making it almost impossible for protection & justice. It’s time to demand it! Patients deserve ethical treatment and safe access to their local pharmacies.
Often, many are “too sick to fight” & many pharmacists fear retaliation for speaking publicly about these issues.
This is why we need your voice. We look forward to meeting you there!
https://uniteforsafemedications.com/protest
Filed under: General Problems
I have the actual print out from another pharmacy where express scripts has me on a DEA alert type thing (sorry don’t know what exactly it’s called) simply because express scripts pharmacist didn’t like the “Californina cocktail” my doctor had me on. Which in turn has causes a world of problems for me. Express Scripts pharmacist refused to speak with my doctor and also refused to speak with my insurance company. Both of which were reaching out to explain my very complex medical history. Needless to say, i was told how much easier it would be for us to use them and our family no longer uses them at all.
That is one of the “benefits” of using a mail order pharmacy.. you are dealing with a nameless, faceless individual that maybe 1000’s of miles away and your ability to discuss issues with them… can be pretty much fruitless. Within the Control Substance Act, a Pharmacist has a corresponding responsibility to make sure that the Rx is for a valid medical necessity and basically some pharmacists do not consider this a “two way street”… making sure you get the right dose in the right hand and make sure that a dose does not get into the “wrong hand”. They are giving the pt a “second medical opinion” without having complete access to the pt’s medical records and does not have the training nor licensing to do a “in person medical exam”… one of the basics of the practice of medicine is the starting, changing, stopping a pt’s therapy. I would send a certified letter to the legal dept of Express Scripts DEMANDING that the pharmacist providing in writing the clinical reasons for their denial/refusal to fill your Rx. “Didn’t like” is not a clinical rational, if they ignore, refuse, file a complaint with the Board of Pharmacy to the state the pharmacy is located and the state pharmacy board in which you live. If the BOP refuses, file a complaint with the state AG in the state the pharmacy was located and the state you live.. is the pharmacist practicing medicine without a license? If you – the pt – is the pharmacist discriminating against you because these meds are used to treat a medical disability that would be covered under a State or Federal discrimination law? Of course, send all correspondence via certified mail – signature requested