In a move that appears to be unique to Texas Employees Retirement System beneficiaries, CVS Caremark is refusing to accommodate the AWP rollback necessitated by the recent First DataBank settlement.

It appears that other pharmacy benefit managers, including Medco, are working to make the change as revenue-neutral as possible for pharmacies. Typically the decrease has been minor if anything. Caremark, however, is causing a 3.5 to 4 percent reimbursement decrease in this plan.

To our knowledge, this has not happened in any other private plans across the U.S. However, NCPA has filed complaints against four state Medicaid programs that could lead to injunctions or litigation for identical action that is proposed by CVS/Caremark here in the Texas ERS plan. 

It's also worth noting that Texas Medicaid is handling this in an exemplary fashion.
 
We know you all have received letters from CVS Caremark giving you until Oct. 16 to decide whether to accept their reimbursement terms.

Officials at ERS are being very cooperative and seem to be genuinely interested in getting input from us to help resolve the situation. We are in discussions with them and Rep. Chuck Hopson, RPh (D-Jacksonville) about this situation. We will all meet as early as Monday.

Stay tuned!