By Sarah Varney
As of January 1, Californians who go to Walgreens to get their prescriptions filled may have been in for a surprise. Because of a contract dispute between Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, and the company that manages prescriptions for Anthem Blue Cross health insurance, many customers will have to find a new pharmacy.
To find out if you’re affected by the dispute, you should check the back of your insurance card. If it says “Express Scripts,” you can no longer fill your prescription at Walgreens under your insurance plan. Express Scripts is a pharmacy benefit manager or PBM. PBMs negotiate prices for drugs and oversee prescription drug programs for health insurance companies, governments, unions and others.
Express Scripts is one of the nation’s largest PBMs. Its clients include Anthem Blue Cross. The two companies had been negotiating a new contract to keep Walgreens in its network, but Express Scripts spokesman Brian Henry says Walgreens was asking for too much money. "Their rates and terms as they currently stand would be as much as 20 percent more," Henry said, "and our clients aren't willing to pay that premium for basically the same service you can get at many other thousands of other pharmacies."
But Walgreens' spokesman Michael Polzin adamantly denies the charge. "We did not propose any increase in our rate," he said. "So there would not be any significant savings to Express Scripts clients for excluding Walgreens from their network. So it's really a situation of all pain and no gain for their clients."