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Critics of Pharmacy Benefit Managers to Protest at Express Scripts

Published

1 year ago

May 16, 2024

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Loretta Boesing’s son is a transplant survivor who needs medication every 12 hours. His family, like many others, decided to try a mail order pharmacy. They say it nearly killed him.

At the time, Boesing didn’t know the ins and outs of the pharmacy industry like she does now. But after his medication was delivered with no ice pack or temperature protections on a 102-degree day in Missouri, she learned — fast.

“I felt his liquid oral transplant medications, I’m like, ‘Gosh, these are so hot,’ but in our minds and as patients, and I think most patients across America would agree, that we just think surely they wouldn’t do this if it’s not safe. But we don’t know that it’s not being regulated by the FDA or the state boards of pharmacy,” she tells RFT. “I give him the medication, he’s in rejection.”

Two weeks after switching to the mail order pharmacy — which she’d later learn was part of St. Louis-based Express Scripts — she says her son was in the hospital and fighting for his life.

If you search “Express Scripts” on social media, you’ll find hundreds of stories condemning the company, some of them similar to Boesing’s.

Boesing swore she’d never use a mail order pharmacy again, but she was later forced to due to her health insurance. This time it was CVS Caremark.

She felt it was inhumane and un-American to be forced into a mail order pharmacy again. Especially when she trusted Cardinal Glennon, where she had been picking up the medication, much more.

“I just broke down at the pharmacy counter,” she says. “I was afraid after what we had been through.”

She says she would call the FDA to share her concerns about the medication’s temperature. She also filed a complaint with the Department of Labor when her son’s medication continued to be shipped without ice packs.

She says she was told the problem was unethical but not illegal. “This is gonna have to go through the legislative process,” she says she was told.

The situation sparked Boesing to become a national activist on the issue of what’s known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers — companies like Express Scripts. PBMs manage the pharmacy benefits for different insurance companies, yet they’ve also become part of them.

“They’ve merged with insurance companies. The three largest are Optum Rx, CVS Caremark, and Express Scripts,” Boesing says. “Express Scripts has merged with Cigna. Aetna has merged with CVS Caremark. United Healthcare has merged with Optum Rx.”

PBMs are supposed to negotiate drug prices for patients, but it doesn’t always work like that, she says. Instead, she says, they can create a sort of monopoly where customers pay higher prices than they would at their local pharmacy.

Express Scripts did not respond to requests for comment.

There is some movement on a national level to reform PBMs. House Bill 2880 has been introduced in Congress and is dubbed the “Protecting Patients Against PBM Abuses Act.” A bipartisan coalition of 39 attorneys general have signed a letter urging Congress to take action against PBMs. Notably, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey did not sign on.

In Missouri, SB 843 was recently heard before the Senate Insurance and Banking Committee and would allow freedom of choice in pharmacies. Similarly, SB 1105 relates to PBMs and prescription drug payments and was also heard by the committee.

The only bill that seems to stand a chance of passage is SB 751, which would enact provisions regarding the distribution of medications, Boesing says. It is on the Senate’s informal calendar for a third reading but time is running out, and she points out that drug manufacturers are lobbying against it.

The Protest

Boesing is one of the organizers of a demonstration Friday in St. Louis, where she says more than 250 protestors from around the country (and Canada) are preparing to descend on St. Louis this Friday. The activists plan to rally outside Express Scripts headquarters to protest their business practices.

“Express Scripts, being a pharmacy benefit manager and a mail order pharmacy, they have the power to create a monopolistic system, which is what they’re doing,” Boesing says. “They create obstacle courses, like when we try to get medications, we have to go through like the prior authorization processes, sometimes for even medications that are lower cost. And due to the ability to have that monopolistic power 30 percent of America’s pharmacies are at risk of closure.”

Protestors are calling on Express Scripts to stop limiting patient choice by designing benefits plans that require patients to use only PBM-owned pharmacies, end what they call its “disregard for safety,” and stop restricting patient care.

They also demand the company end its “anticompetitive behavior.”

“As ‘negotiators,’ PBMs shouldn’t own pharmacies (it’s a conflict of interest), and yet Express Scripts is the 3rd largest pharmacy in the U.S. In a drive to make patients dependent on its pharmacies, Express Scripts offers its competitor pharmacies non-negotiable contracts with perpetually changing, unconscionable terms; mandated below-cost reimbursements; and no guarantee of steering the pharmacies’ patients to Express Scripts’ own pharmacies,” organizers say in a release. “With Express Scripts, CVS Caremark and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx holding 80 percent of the covered lives in the U.S., there’s no incentive for any of the ‘Big 3’ PBMs to compete.”

The rally will take place at Express Scripts’ Headquarters (1 Express Way) in north county from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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