by Leslie Small
CVS Health Corp.'s
Caremark division came under fire recently when Pill Club, a
birth-control-delivery startup, accused the PBM of restricting access to
contraceptives amid a reimbursement dispute. The dustup even spilled onto
social media, with the hashtags #CVSDeniesCare and #BoycottCVS trending on
Twitter on Aug. 15.
While the dust has since
settled, experts tell AIS Health that the incident raises bigger questions,
including whether social media will increasingly be used by smaller fish in the
pharmacy supply chain to amplify their negotiating clout with powerful PBMs.
The situation started
when the PBM notified Pill Club and other non-traditional pharmacies that had
been receiving reimbursements at the same rate as retail pharmacies that they
would be subject to different terms, a CVS spokesperson told AIS Health.
Pill Club responded by
calling out the company on a section of its website, which said that "CVS
Caremark's proposed payment changes threaten Pill Club's ability to serve
members." CVS, in turn, created a section on its own website to dispute
Pill Club's claims, writing that it is "irresponsible for The Pill Club to
falsely suggest access to women’s health care is being jeopardized just so it
can maximize its profits at the expense of our PBM clients."
Mariana Socal, M.D.,
assistant scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's
Department of Health Policy and Management, says Pill Club was "trying to
harness the power from social media and public interest" in order to boost
its negotiation capabilities with CVS. "I believe that that’s an important
resource that we may see more and more being tapped into by perhaps these
online retailers and others," she adds.
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