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Lawsuit says CVS crossed 'ethical and legal line' while fighting late change to pharmacy bill
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ST. MARTINVILLE — A lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges CVS Health Corp. broke the law when it sent a series of text messages to Louisiana residents asking them to lobby against a bill that would have impacted its bottom line.
The lawsuit, filed in the 16th Judicial District, comes a week after CVS sent texts and emails warning that lawmakers — without holding public hearings — were poised to adopt a bill that would have banned pharmacy benefit managers from owning retail pharmacies in the state.
The messages claimed the bill would "force CVS Pharmacy locations to close, cause prescription prices to rise, and result in job losses for pharmacists," law firm Broussard, David and Moroux said. "The messages, distributed under the headline 'SOS: Save Our Stores,' urged recipients to contact elected officials and oppose House Bill 358."
CVS said it had an obligation to address "misguided legislation" that lawmakers took up in the closing moments of the 2025 legislative session. A company spokeswoman said that reaching out to its customers was legal.
The plaintiffs accuse CVS of using patients’ private information for political purposes, similar to a complaint previously raised by the attorney general's office. Last week, it issued a cease-and-desist letter to CVS.
The lawsuit alleges that CVS Caremark, a subsidiary of the larger CVS Health, attempted to scare its customers into opposing the legislation.
“Patient information is meant for health care, not political manipulation,” lawyer Jerome H. Moroux said. “No one goes to the pharmacy expecting their personal data will be turned into a campaign tool. That crosses a bright ethical and legal line.”
The campaign "constitutes a serious breach of state and federal privacy laws, as well as violations of Louisiana’s unfair trade practices protections," the lawyers said. The lawyers are seeking class-action status, which would let the original plaintiffs represent whoever received the messages.
A legislative conference committee that purportedly gathered to hammer out differences in a bill inserted the anti-PBM language into a bill that initially addressed remote work by pharmacists. They bypassed a bill's normal route — which would have seen it go before House and Senate committees before a final vote.
The bill ultimately died when the Senate declined to take it up. Leadership said that with a proposed effective date of 2027, there was plenty of time to take up the bill later.
CVS said that, had the bill passed, it would have been forced to close more than 100 stores, impacting around 980,000 customers.
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