CVS Responds to Justice Department Lawsuit

As we wrote about last month, at the end of 2024 the US Department of Justice filed a nationwide lawsuit against pharmacy giant CVS, alleging that the chain was unlawfully dispensing massive quantities of opioids and other controlled substances and subsequently billed federal health care programs for the prescriptions. (The Justice Department filed a very similar case against Walgreens in early 2025 with virtually the same allegations.)

CVS responded on its website, in a post titled “Fill this opioid prescription. No, wait, actually you can’t do that. Or, maybe, you can: The dilemma for community pharmacists.”

CVS Response

“When it comes to filling opioid prescriptions, pharmacists are held to vague, undefined, and ever-changing standards of practice,” noted the response, which charged that even the DEA has said repeatedly that there is no simple rule to apply.

“Whichever decision they make, community pharmacists know they can—and will—be second-guessed later. Too often, we have seen government agencies and trial lawyers question the good-faith decisions made by pharmacists while a patient waits at the pharmacy counter, often in pain. While simultaneously being accused of dispensing too few opioids, and too many, pharmacists and pharmacies face threats of liability no matter their actions.”

The chain provided a list of practices it has implemented to provide pain relief for patients while maintaining compliance with the law. Among those practices are blocking prescriptions from certain doctors with questionable prescribing habits, utilizing computer systems that alert pharmacists to forgeries and incorrect DEA numbers, training pharmacists in proper opioid dispensing, and using drug monitoring databases.

However, the company complains that even after having taken these steps, it continues to face state investigations and lawsuits for allegedly second-guessing prescribers’ medical judgment and refusing to fill opioid prescriptions. “Whatever decision pharmacists make, it will not be good enough for some interest group,” noted the response. “This after-the-fact scrutiny places our pharmacists in an unenviable position.” CVS added that past efforts to work with the DEA to improve the situation had been “routinely and flatly rebuked by bureaucrats that have no interest in disrupting the status quo.”

The Takeaway

Opioids continue to be a problem in the US. This case, along with the one against Walgreens, will be followed closely as pharmacists look for guidance on how to safely dispense opioids.

Reference

Fill this opioid prescription. No, wait, actually you can’t do that. Or, maybe, you can: The dilemma for community pharmacists. Press release. CVS Health. Published December 18, 2024. Accessed February 20, 2025. https://www.cvshealth.com/impact/healthy-community/our-opioid-response.html