January 23, 2009
Hon. Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr.
Essex County Executive
Hall of Records, Room 405
465 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: OPRA Request
Audit of Caremark
Dear Mr. DiVincenzo:
Attached, please find a copy of the Open Public Records Request (OPRA) form CWA Local 1081 has submitted this day to the County of Essex requesting the following documentation regarding our Union’s request your administration arrange for an audit of Caremark as was reiterated within our Union’s attached letter of October 27, 2008 to Essex County Treasurer Paul Hopkins in which we asserted, “As per the discussion that ensued during the course of the October 20, 2008 meeting between Essex County DiVincenzo and members of his Administration and the leaders of Unions representing employees of the County regarding contract negotiations, please find attached CWA Local 1081’s letter of April 16, 2008 written Essex County Administrator Joyce Wilson Harley, Esq. entitled ‘Audit of Caremark’”. Please note, as well, as our attached letter of December 31, 2008 written Mr. Hopkins, in this regard, to which we’ve also yet to receive a rejoinder.
1. Copies of all documentation, between your administration and Caremark (now CVS Caremark), regarding your administration’s creditable endeavor to inaugurate such an audit.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081
April 16, 2008
Joyce Wilson Harley, Esq., Administrator
County of Essex
Hall of Records
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Audit of PBM Caremark
Dr. Ms. Wilson Harley:
In our Union’s never ending quest to promote prudent pecuniary policies for the County of Essex, while concurrently lessening the adverse contractual fiscal exposure for our members, CWA Local 1081 respectfully submits this proposal the Administration immediately order initiated an audit of Caremark, the Prescription Benefit Manager (PBM) for the County’s employees.
The following piece regarding the State of Vermont epitomizes the sagacity of our suggestion:
Vermont state officials have jumped on the PBM auditing bandwagon. State Auditor Elizabeth Ready is calling for an audit of the state's contracted PBM, Express Scripts. She is concerned that the PBM might be gaining a hidden profit from its contract to manage pharmacy benefits for 20,000 state workers and retirees and their families. The PBM's contract with Vermont is worth approximately $15,000. The main concern lies in the difference between the average wholesale price the PBM says it is charged and the actual amount it pays. Ready has asked the state's attorney general to investigate Express Scripts, and her request is being reviewed. Vermont officials do not cite any evidence of fraudulent dealings by the PBM, but are led to this action by virtue of the fact that eight other states are auditing their PBM's, and also because the industry has changed significantly in the two years since the contract was implemented. They hope to achieve additional savings by engaging in re-pricing discussions with Express Scripts. Contact office of Vermont Personnel Commissioner Cynthia LaWare at (802) 828-3491, or Vermont Attorney General's office at (802) 828-3171.
Caremark is ostensibly not without sin, as per the following article published by The Wall Street Journal:
February 15, 2008, 9:27 am
CVS Caremark Settles Prescription Switching Probe
Posted by Jacob Goldstein
CVS Caremark is paying $38.5 million to end a probe by a bunch of state attorneys general into the company’s alleged practice of encouraging doctors to switch patients to different brand-name drugs.
The probe scrutinized the company’s pharmacy benefit management business, which handles companies’ prescription-drug insurance programs. The AGs claimed that Caremark pushed docs to switch patients to different prescription drugs, suggesting that the patients and health plans would save money.
But the company “allegedly did not clearly disclose to their client plans that rebates accrued from the drug switching process would be retained by Caremark and not passed directly to the client plan,” according to a statement from the Illinois AG. (Drug makers sometimes woo PBM's with offers of rebates, to encourage the companies to move patients to their drugs.)
The company “expressly denied any and all allegations,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Still, the settlement imposes a bunch of rules on when CVS Caremark can “solicit drug switches.” The company’s not allowed to do so, for example, when switching would result in a higher price for the patient. Also prohibited is soliciting a switch to a different brand-name drug from a drug that’s about to go off patent, or that already has a generic alternative.
CWA Local 1081 requests the Administration order initiated an audit at once of Caremark in order to protect the best interests of both the taxpayers of the County of Essex as well those of the County’s hard working and dedicated employees.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President, CWA Local 1081
C: Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders
December 31, 2008
Paul Hopkins, Treasurer
County of Essex
Hall of Records
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Audit of Caremark Status
Dear Mr. Hopkins:
CWA Local 1081 respectfully requests you inform our Union as to the status of the audit of Caremark the Administration of Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo informed our Union was undertaken in response to CWA Local 1081’s attached letter Essex County Administrator Joyce Wilson Harley of April 16, 2008.
Please recall our Union’s attached letter of October 27, 2008, written you in this exact regard, wherein we lucidly opined that such an audit should have been begun “in order to protect the best interests of both the taxpayers of the County of Essex as well those of the County’s hard working and dedicated employees” and that “Any monies realized as the result of an audit of Caremark and the County’s contracted health benefits companies should, of course, be dedicated to providing fiscal relief to ‘both the taxpayers of the County of Essex as well those of the County’s hard working and dedicated employees’. Such fiscal relief to our members should take the form of the Administration honoring all of the terms and conditions of our mutually agreed upon negotiated Memorandum of Agreement of November 25, 2008.
CWA Local 1081 thanks you, in advance, for your expeditious cooperation with this sincere supplication.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081
October 27, 2008
Paul Hopkins, Treasurer
County of Essex
Hall of Records
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Audit of Caremark
Dear Mr. Hopkins:
As per the discussion that ensued during the course of the October 20, 2008 meeting between Essex County DiVincenzo and members of his Administration and the leaders of Unions representing employees of the County regarding contract negotiations, please find attached CWA Local 1081’s letter of April 16, 2008 written Essex County Administrator Joyce Wilson Harley, Esq. entitled “Audit of Caremark”.
In solidarity with our Brother Joseph Calabro, Business Agent for IBEW Local 1158 who was in attendance at the October 20, 2008 Labor/Management meeting and who reiterated his own past stated exact same sentiment as had we, our Union is heartened by the Administration’s response that it has undertaken the means by which an audit of Caremark will at once begin “in order to protect the best interests of both the taxpayers of the County of Essex as well those of the County’s hard working and dedicated employees” the latter with whom the Administration is now negotiation successor contracts with their Union representatives.
Any monies realized as the result of an audit of Caremark and the County’s contracted health benefits companies should, of course, be dedicated to providing fiscal relief to “both the taxpayers of the County of Essex as well those of the County’s hard working and dedicated employees”.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081