STAT+: A ‘veritable playground’: CVS whistleblower details how patients were charged higher drug prices

Starting in 2015, CVS allegedly coordinated an effort to prevent Medicare consumers from obtaining low-cost generics, in order to profit from making only higher-priced brand-name medicines available.

The conversation reflected frustration and disbelief.

A woman had called SilverScript, which runs one of the largest Medicare prescription drug plans, to complain that she was unable to get a generic version of a brand-name asthma medication known as Advair. She couldn’t understand why a less-expensive generic was not on the list of covered medicines, because paying for it anyway would cost her about $100 more.

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