http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cvs-pharmacy-20121017,0,5604990.story

State probes CVS refill allegations

California pharmacy regulators have opened an investigation into reports that CVS Caremark Corp. refilled prescriptions and billed insurance companies without patients’ consent.

From the article:

“CVS policy requires that a patient’s consent “be obtained before a prescription is filled,” said Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman for the Woonsocket, R.I., company. CVS, he said, would provide the pharmacy board with any information needed.”

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“That possibility was underscored by confidential emails sent this year by a CVS executive in New Jersey, who supervised dozens of regional pharmacists. Officials at the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs said it will investigate to see if any state laws were violated.

The emails, obtained by The Times, described an internal quota for prescription refills that threatened pharmacists who missed their quotas with “major personnel changes.”

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CVS acknowledged two weeks ago that the emails were legitimate but said they were not the result of any company policy. Spokesman DeAngelis blamed the action on an overzealous manager.”

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“DeAngelis said that company policy “specifically directs” pharmacists to get customer approval first.”

You RPH’s that work for this chain.. it is now time to flood the media with copies of your annual job review that shows that there is a line denoting per-cent of auto refill that you must meet to keep from getting a “poor job performance” .. You did get copies of those job reviews .. didn’t you…. you did keep them .. didn’t you ?

Notice that the company’s “mouth piece” keep referring to “company policies”… the infamous company’s policies and procedure manual.

Because these things happened at the store level… are all the fault of some “overzealous employees”   THE CORPORATION IS INNOCENT…

Someone’s head(s) will roll over this within CVS… but .. it probably won’t be the numb-nut(s) that came up with this ass-hole metric.. it will most like be someone under the numb-nut(s) that implemented it.

They are laying the ground work for paying a fine.. “while admitting no wrong doing” when it all hits the fan… which will probably take a couple of years of investigating by the bureaucrats.

According to the article:

“The pharmacy board has the power, in extreme cases, to revoke the professional pharmacy licenses of companies or individuals found to violate state law, effectively shutting them down.”

so.. IMO .. they are also laying the ground work to defend the corporation against having the store permit’s revoked.. because the “company” didn’t do anything wrong… it was the employees violating the company’s policies and procedures…

 

Filed under: General Problems