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Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Thursday that she is investigating whether pharmaceutical giant CVS improperly used customers’ personal information to send out text messages lobbying against a proposed state law.
Murrill also said she plans to issue a cease-and-desist letter to the company to stop the messages.
As lawmakers debated a now-failed bill on Wednesday they held up screenshots of text messages sent by CVS.
“Last minute legislation in Louisiana threatens to close your CVS Pharmacy—your medication cost may go up and your pharmacist may lose their job,” one such text, obtained by The Associated Press, reads.
The proposed legislation would have prohibited companies from owning both pharmacy benefit managers and drug stores.
The CVS Health Corporation owns retail pharmacies as well as CVS Caremark, one of the country’s top three pharmacy benefit managers with a market share of more than 100 million members. CVS Caremark and other managers serve as middlemen, purchasing prescription drugs from manufacturers and setting the terms for how they are distributed to customers.
“These powerful middlemen may be profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies,” a 2024 Federal Trade Commission report warned.
CVS says on its website that it “negotiates lower costs for our customers and expands coverage to affordable medications that people need to stay healthy.”
The company’s text messages to Louisiana residents included a link to a draft letter urging lawmakers to oppose the legislation that someone could sign with their email address and send to legislators.
“The proposed legislation would take away my and other Louisiana patients’ ability to get our medications shipped right to our homes,” the letter reads. “They would also ban the pharmacies that serve patients suffering from complex diseases requiring specialty pharmacy care to manage their life-threatening conditions like organ transplants or cancer. These vulnerable patients cannot afford any disruption to their care—the consequences would be dire.”
State Rep. Dixon McMakin says some of the messages from CVS were misleading and false. He specifically pointed to ads that people reported seeing on social media, alleging that lawmakers “may shut down every CVS pharmacy in the state.”
“No we’re not, you liars. Quit being liars. Quit using scare tactics,” McMakin said.
