CVS Caremark dumped by big Medicaid insurer

The way Ohio delivers prescription drugs to Medicaid recipients underwent a major change Tuesday.

CareSource, by far Ohio’s largest Medicaid managed-care provider, announced that it was firing CVS Caremark as its pharmacy benefit manager. Starting Jan. 1, the 1.2 million Medicaid clients served by Dayton-based CareSource will have their prescriptions handled by Express Scripts, another of the nation’s three dominant pharmacy benefit managers.

The move comes after more than a year of scrutiny by government officials and The Dispatch of CVS’s pricing practices. A study found that in 2017, CVS charged taxpayer-funded companies such as CareSource as much as almost $200 million more for prescription drugs than it reimbursed pharmacists. CareSource paid CVS’ PBM $1.4 billion a year, with CVS keeping $114 million.

Top executives with CareSource said the change is the result of a year’s worth of work trying to bring transparency to drug pricing.

Read more: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190409/cvs-caremark-dumped-by-big-medicaid-insurer