The Republicans of the Chamber have CVS probe for the alleged violation of Hipaa

Diving brief:

• Two members of the Republican Congress are investigating CVs to fear that the company has used confidential information for patients to put pressure against a Louisiana bill who would have forced her to break his pharmacy activity.
• On Thursday, the president of the James Comer Chamber’s supervisory committee, R-ky., And the Federal President of the Application of Laws, Clay Higgins, R-La., Sent a June CVs letter to his June Text Text message campaign, alleging that she may have raped the HIPAA law in matters of confidentiality.
• The letter requests information on CVS use of patient data for political advocacy in Louisiana and other states in the past five years. A CVS spokesperson confirmed that the company had received the letter and plans to respond, while defending the behavior of CVS as “compliant with the law”.

Diving insight:

The letter stems from reports according to which on June 11, CVS sent a mass SMS to thousands of Louisiana customers using data that patients shared with the company for prescription medication services. The text threatened that local pharmacies would close and that drug prices would increase if Louisiana adopted HB 358, a bill that prevents state companies from operating pharmacy and pharmacies.

The text urged the beneficiaries to contact their representatives of the State to oppose the bill, according to local reports.

CVS’s behavior seems to violate the HIPAA, the federal law protecting the personal information of individuals, Commer and Higgins wrote in their letter to the CEO of CVS, David Joyner.

“CVS Pharmacy regularly uses its mass text messaging system to inform patients of prescription updates and other individualized information for patients,” says the letter. “Consequently, it seems that the use by CVS Health of information protected to patients for the purposes of political advocacy can represent a violation of the HIPAA.”

The attorney general of Louisiana, Liz Murrill, sent a letter to stop ceasing to CVS the day after the texts. CVS denied that his actions were a violation of the HIPAA in the State. However, Louisiana has filed an action in charge against CVS before the State Court later this month, alleging that the text messaging campaign – and the CVS property of PBM Caremark and pharmacies – have violated the law of state practices of the state.

CVS operates 119 pharmacies in Louisiana, as well as one of the largest PBM in the country. This creates an inherent conflict of interest, according to criticism of the power of companies rooted in the American pharmaceutical supply chain.

It is a concern shared by antitrust regulators. The Federal Trade Commission has published two very critical reports with regard to the PBM

Despite the interest of the hill, the Congress has not yet adopted legislation to tackle the PBM reform. States enter the gap, including with legislation such as that proposed by Louisiana. To date, Arkansas is the only state to really adopt a law preventing the PBMS from having or operating pharmacies, although a court has made the law implementation in July.