By Amina Niasse and Jody Godoy
NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) – CVS Health’s Caremark has finalized a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in which it agreed to curb use of after-market discounts known as rebates and count consumers’ TrumpRx purchases toward their deductibles, an FTC spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Similar to Cigna’s settlement with the FTC earlier this year, the deal would curb practices critics say contribute to high drug costs. It would also require CVS’ Caremark pharmacy benefit manager to include a patient’s payments through the TrumpRx drug website toward the deductibles some of its health plans require, once regulations are in place to facilitate the TrumpRx program.
The settlement is expected to bring billions of dollars in savings on drug prices, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.
“The FTC under President Trump won’t stand for anticompetitive behavior that drives up prices for American consumers,” Ferguson said.
U.S. President Donald Trump launched TrumpRx.gov, a website offering hundreds of generic and branded drugs at a discount, in February, with a particular focus on connecting consumers with low prices for highly popular weight-loss drugs from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
Health plan deductibles are the minimum spend members must reach before leveraging their coverage. TrumpRx.gov sends cash-pay customers to drugmaker websites for discounted drugs, but has operated outside of insurance, limiting its value for some American consumers.
CVS must also provide an option to clients that allows them to opt out of rebate payment models, a spokesperson for the FTC said. These rebates are paid by drugmakers to the pharmacy benefit manager and may or may not be passed on to the plan sponsor or consumer after a certain drug is dispensed.
(Reporting by Amina Niasse and Jody Godoy in New York; editing by Caroline Humer and Aurora Ellis)
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