Union group pushes state to dump drug plan manager
By JOHN HANNA
Associated Press
TOPEKA— A national union group is pushing Kansas to dump the company that manages the prescription plan for state employees, saying it has failed to offer the lowest possible prices on many drugs. A legislative committee chairman said Friday that the panel may hold hearings on those claims.
Washington-based Change to Win, which represents 5.5 million workers in five unions including the Teamsters, contends CVS Caremark Corp. has not offered Kansas government employees the best deal in many cases. Change to Win also said there have been similar questions about CVS plans in other states, including Illinois and Maryland.
CVS, based in Woonsocket, R.I., said the union group is waging a campaign against the company with “misleading or outright false information.”
Kansas spent $61 million last year on CVS-provided prescriptions for its 24,700 employees and paid the company $1.6 million in administrative fees. The state’s three-year contract with CVS will end Dec. 31, and Kansas has sought proposals for a new contract from potential managers.
Change to Win outlined its claims against CVS in a letter earlier this month to Secretary of Administration Duane Goossen. He is chairman of a five-member commission that plans to decide which company should receive the new contract. Union representatives also brought Change to Win’s criticisms of CVS to the House Government Efficiency and Fiscal Oversight Committee this week.
“I think we’ll try to have some hearings and find out if there is any substance to this,” said committee Chairman Jim Morrison, a Colby Republican. “If what is alleged is true, we’re getting a charged a bunch more than we should be.”
CVS spokeswoman Carolyn Castel said Change to Win has “recklessly and deliberately distorted” information about the company. She said the union group is upset because the CVS won’t end secret balloting in elections on whether employees want to unionize.
In its letter to Goossen, the union group said the prices paid by state employees for 269 generic drugs is higher than the prices those employees would pay with a discount card at a CVS retail pharmacy.
Change to Win spokesman Casey Cabalquinto said “questionable” pricing and problems in other states warrant an investigation by the House committee. The group’s letter to Goossen said those issues should be considered when a new contract is awarded.
Cabalquinto said Change to Win’s efforts are designed to promote reform and aren’t about any dispute over organizing CVS employees, because, “There is no organizing program.”
Peter Hancock, a spokesman for the Kansas Health Policy Authority — the state agency managing the overall health plan for state government workers — said the state’s biggest concern is the cost of name-brand drugs. Also, he said, CVS has a relatively small retail pharmacy presence in Kansas, mostly in urban areas.
“We have to look at the entire spectrum of pharmaceutical costs and the entire spectrum of outlets to get them at,” he said.
The debate over CVS became clouded this week by what Morrison described as miscommunication between him and House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican.
Accounts differ, but Morrison told the committee Thursday that a review of CVS wouldn’t go forward, suggesting that O’Neal objected. Some committee members were upset.
The same day, House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat, repeated the secondhand reports during a public meeting of a panel investigating an unrelated misconduct complaint filed by Davis and other Democrats against O’Neal.
Both Morrison and O’Neal said Friday that the real issue was whether O’Neal wanted to take the unusual step of giving Morrison’s committee the power to subpoena documents and witnesses. He did not, but didn’t object to hearings.
“He can have as many hearings as he wants,” O’Neal said.
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On the Net:
Change to Win: http://www.changetowin.org/
CVS Caremark Corp.: http://info.cvscaremark.com/
Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org