Hawaii Targets PBMs With Suit Alleging Unfair Pricing System (1)

Hawaii has joined the legal fray against the country’s top companies managing prescription drug benefits, alleging the entities are driving up high drug costs for patients they’re supposed to serve.

CVS Health’s Caremark, UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx, and Cigna Group’s Express Scripts have “engineered a business model which distorts the market to their benefit, rather than serving the best interest of their client, the payer, or the end consumer, the patient,” Hawaii Attorney General Anne E. Lopez wrote in the complaint filed Wednesday in Hawaii state court.

The lawsuit claims the three pharmacy benefit managers—which together control 80% of ...