health care
FTC competition unit to examine CVS
By PBN Staff
6/24/09
WASHINGTON – The Federal Trade Commission has referred to its Bureau of Competition a complaint by an independent pharmacists group that CVS Caremark Corp. has engaged in anticompetitive practices, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
The FTC also gave final approval to a $2.25 million settlement that CVS made with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over allegations that the company had illegally disposed of private customer information in trash cans outside CVS stores, Dow Jones reported.
The commission also ordered CVS to create a security plan for dealing with sensitive information.
The National Community Pharmacists Association, a trade group that opposed the merger that created CVS Caremark in 2007, met last month with FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz to request a formal FTC investigation of Woonsocket-based CVS.
The group argues that CVS is unfairly using its pharmacy benefit management (PBM) division to steer patients to the chain’s 6,900 retail pharmacy stores.
An FTC spokesperson told Dow Jones that the agency’s policies do not allow it to say whether it is considering reexamining the CVS Caremark merger.
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