June 1st, 2004 - Medicare Drug Cards Not As Popular As Predicted By Administration

As the June 1, 2004 start date arrives, the number of older Americans enrolling for the new Medicare drug discount program has been extremely disappointing to program administrators. A recent article at CNN.com noted that AARP, one of the nation's largest organizations for older adults, has indicated that its number of program participants is small. The organization of over 35 million 50-and-older members distributed 26,000 enrollment kits but has signed only 400 participants. The Bush administration projected that over 7 million Medicare recipients would seek benefit cards for use in the program. For additional information, read the entire article on CNN.com.

For additional information concerning Pharmacy Benefit Managers, visit the PBM Watch Newsroom

May 26, 2004 - Employee Lawsuit Against Express Scripts Removed To Federal Court

A New York federal judge has ruled that the removal to federal court of a deceptive practices class action lawsuit brought by New York state employees was appropriate. Allowing the PBM defendant to aggregate the group of New York state employees claims for damages was proper as a method to meet the "amount in controversy requirement" for diversity jurisdiction. The case, James M. Wagner, et al. v. Express Scripts, Inc., is now in the United States federal district court for Southern District of New York and asserts claims for breach of fiduciary duty and violations of New York's Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The employee plaintiffs contend that Express Scripts generates profits by employing deceptive practices resulting in increased health care costs, inflated insurance premiums and prescription drug rates as well as inflated co-payments for prescriptions that exceed the actual cost of the prescription. Inflated insurance premiums and employee co-payments are caused by Express Scripts' failure to pass on compensation received from major pharmaceutical companies.

Drug Discounts Beginning Tuesday, but Sign-Ups Lag

By ROBERT PEAR and MILT FREUDENHEIM reporters with the New York Times Online

Published: June 1, 2004

WASHINGTON, May 31 — Elderly people begin using Medicare drug discount cards on Tuesday in an experiment that has gotten off to a slow start but promises to have big implications for politics and health policy, regardless of whether it delivers big savings.

The program is the first major test of the new Medicare law before the November elections. If discount cards do not deliver the promised savings, the experiment could stoke public anger over drug prices and increase political pressure for further steps to make drugs more affordable. More...