Change to Win, a group of unions that represent about 6 million workers, is going after the PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Manager) that does its dirty work for CVS. It seems Caremark has been sending letters to doctors prodding them to add Januvia to specific patients' treatments. How is that for patient privacy? The letter tells the physician how CVS went through a thorough review process to identify which patients would benefit from the switch. It also states at the bottom that Merck, which happens to make Januvia, paid for the whole thing. Januvia seems like a good drug. It may be a staple in the oral treatment of diabetes type II in the future. It's just really expensive. This type of marketing, though, is outrageous. With this information coming out in the WSJ, all groups involved are now trying to pass the blame. Merck is now saying that the letter was sent by Caremark and they were just trying to help patients and doctors. CVS, which owns Caremark (one of the nation's largest PBM) claim they weren't trying to switch patients medications. They also claim this was about the unions wanting to get back at them in a dispute about workplace rules. The only ones not saying anything are the patients and doctors who get caught in the middle like pawns. I get tons of these "reviews" all the time and it just adds to my paperwork burden. As much as I really don't like strong arming unions, I am kind of glad they are pissing off the PBMs. That is until they get some type of deal they want and then all of this will mysteriously go away.
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