WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of U.S. congressmen have sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to reexamine the 2007 merger of CVS Corp. and Caremark Rx Inc., Bloomberg News reported.

“We strongly believe that CVS Caremark is engaging in unfair and deceptive business practices that are causing harm to consumers, patients and local community pharmacies,” the eight lawmakers – four Democrats and four Republicans – said in a letter dated Sept. 14, according to Bloomberg.

They accused the company of improperly steering Caremark patients to CVS retail stores and incorrectly implying that their prescription drug cards can only be used at CVS stores, according to Reuters.

"We are troubled that these are unfair and deceptive business practices. We strongly encourage the FTC to reopen the CVS Caremark merger investigation and determine if the acquisition poses a threat of reducing competition or whether CVS is engaging in any unfair or deceptive practices," said another portion of the letter quoted by Reuters.

The congressional letter is the latest in a series of moves by politicians, unions and independent pharmacists to get FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz to look into the merger that created CVS Caremark Corp., which fills more than 1 billion prescriptions a year.

CVS spokeswoman Carolyn Castel disputed the congressmen’s allegations. “Any suggestions that our business practices are anti-competitive or that we are violating antitrust laws are totally false,” she told Bloomberg in an e-mail yesterday.

According to Bloomberg, the letter was signed by Republican Reps. John Boozman of Arkansas, Walter Jones of North Carolina, and Robert Aderholt and Michael Rogers, both of Alabama; and Democratic Reps. Anthony Weiner of New York, Marion Berry of Arkansas, Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Michael Arcuri of New York.