Pharmacy Sued for Alleged Rx Transfer Scheme

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has filed suit against a pharmacy that was allegedly transferring prescriptions without permission from patients, forcing them to pay higher prices than necessary.

Cure Pharmacy of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, is Morrisey’s most recent target. The attorney general also filed similar suits against Utah pharmacies David Pharmacy LLC and Rock City Pharmacy LLC in November 2015.

The lawsuits accuse the pharmacies of obtaining personal data from patients and using it to transfer prescriptions to each pharmacy without informing the patients. This alleged scheme led patients to receive prescriptions from sources that were more expensive than if the prescriptions hadn’t been transferred.

Morrisey hinted in a press release that more lawsuits could follow after investigation of additional evidence.

“I take these allegations seriously,” he stated. “When we believe that any company—much less a pharmacy—would take a consumer’s information and use it improperly, we will aggressively try to stop the practice.”

The attorney general is looking to block Cure Pharmacy’s in-state operations and record information about all of its West Virginia customers. The lawsuit also requests that Cure avoid contacting any of its West Virginia customers.

The lawsuit calls for a $5000 fine for each violation of the state’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act. The lawsuit against the 2 Utah pharmacies seeks the same fines.

The 3 pharmacies allegedly collected patient information through forms, surveys, and online questionnaires.

With this information, the companies “enticed” patients to unknowingly transfer prescriptions, according to the attorney general’s press release. In addition, physicians received faxed transfer forms to the pharmacies without the patients’ informed consent.

Many patients received bulk prescriptions that they hadn’t ordered. The lawsuit noted that this caused financial hardship for many of the West Virginia patients because some of the prescriptions weren’t filled to “maximize consumers’ health benefits through insurance and state medical programs.”