Major hospitals sue CVS over alleged drug discount scheme

Three of the nation’s largest hospital systems have filed coordinate federal lawsuits accusing healthcare giant CVS Health of orchestrating a highly calculated, multi-year "spread pricing" scheme that surreptitiously drained a combined $250 million away from safety-net medical programs. The legal complaints—filed separately in federal courts by New York's Mount Sinai Health System, University of Michigan Health (including Sparrow Hospital), and the University of Kansas Hospital Authority—claim CVS and its vertically integrated subsidiaries systematically pocketed drug discounts legally mandated to fund care for low-income, vulnerable, and uninsured patients.