Clawbacks: Recent Litigation Targeting Insurers And Pharmacy Benefit Managers

While the term "co-pay" might suggest a sharing of costs between patients and their health plans, a recent study by the University of Southern California Schaeffer Center found that almost a quarter of patients are paying more than the full price for their prescription drugs under their insurance plans due to "clawbacks."  A prescription drug clawback occurs when patients purchasing drugs from pharmacies make co-payments required under their insurance plans that exceed the price of the prescriptions and then the insurers and/or pharmacy benefit managers ("PBMs") clawback from the pharmacies the excess amounts paid.

There have been frequent media reports on the practice of prescription drug clawbacks and federal lawsuits have been filed against insurance companies and PBMs, such as UnitedHealth, Cigna, Humana, and Optum Rx.  The theories of liability being asserted include breach of fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), violations