Blue Cross Blue Shield plans sue CVS for overcharging them for generic drugs

Whenever I visit the states and pop into CVS I am frequently amazed at the sticker prices on some of the dugs there. Things that literally cost pennies per tablet in the UK (generic hayfever tablets, pain killers etc) were absurd prices. 20USD for 7 hayfever tablets? 15 USD for 12 ibuprofen tablets? WTF?! <i>Do not</i> forget to get 12 hayfever tablets for £1.80 (~2USD) from a supermarket before your flight otherwise you&#x27;ll need to spend 45USD (+tax) at the CVS a block from your hotel.<p>Do you guys actually pay these prices for this stuff, or is it only forgetful travellers who fall for it and end up paying through the nose because they have no other choice?<p>Surely you won&#x27;t be claiming for pain killers for a headache etc on your health insurance? (...although at those prices maybe you should??!)<p>It feels to me that is pretty criminal to charge those prices at retail - to inflate even more to insurers just seems pretty outrageous.

Hah. When we did IVF, they had me sign up for that CVS plan. It was sold to me as an &quot;insurance program&quot; offered via CVS, and only good at CVS.<p>It saved me many thousands of dollars, which I assume was charged to people who had insurance that covered IVF drugs (mine did not).<p>I thought it was a pretty clever workaround on CVS&#x27;s part.

They also charge me more at the doctor when I have insurance... is it ok to say that you don&#x27;t have insurance and make a claim later?

When I was between jobs I had about a 2 week period where I was technically without coverage, but the new company reimbursed me once I was on their plan. I went to fill a prescription for a very common generic drug that has been around for decades at the chain pharmacy I always use.<p>I was expecting to pay the same price I generally did, about $3.00. I was shocked when they charged me $150.00. I can understand the pharmacy needing to charge a bit more to cover costs, but this seemed like highway robbery.

As the number of pharmacy companies has declined, there&#x27;s been a huge creep upwards in the price of generic drugs. Even for non-prescription drugs. Price is no longer even vaguely related to production cost. Look at the price of antacid tablets (which are chalk, calcium carbonate) and cranberry pills (a very cheap product.)

Price discrimination in healthcare is out of control. Simple addition to Medicare regulation that requires any provider (including Pharma resellers) to have a public price and not charge anyone more than they charge Medicare solves a lot of problems.

I thought that the grammar in this headline was all messed up. But it turns out &quot;Blues plans&quot; is a thing.

I&#x27;ve done price comparisons and CVS is hands down the worst price for anything.<p>The only reason you go to CVS, is if you have 0 other options.<p>While I blame the various medical cartels for making healthcare unaffordable by bribing (Lobbying) hundreds of millions of dollars to politicians- can the customer be blamed for negligence?

Just switched from CVS to Walgreens for this exact reason. They were charging the insurance (and us for the uncovered amount) full prices for generic versions.<p>And let me just clarify, the prescription bottle had the generic version on the label, our receipt was for the non-generic!<p>We complained to the CVS pharmacist about this and their response was brazen and they wouldn&#x27;t budge even when we said we will escalate this to our insurance company. We did escalate it to our insurance company (not Blue Cross Blue Shield), but never heard anything more about it... perhaps more will sue in the weeks to come.<p>Edit: This was in SoCal, not one of the states mentioned. Also, we weren&#x27;t part of this plan that they talk about in the article.

I had to fail 4 medications WITH insurance and I had BCBS, to get my medication for free, thay was already free through the insurance, that just fucked me up even more mentally than I started.

Repeating myself: I thought charging different customers different prices for the exact same thing was wrong. Somehow.

Seems like an obvious business model. Sell OTC drugs at fractions of current prices and still make a large profit...<p>What is the catch?

As a former BCBS employer plan admin...the irony is thick.