CVS Health may have violated federal antitrust laws by pressuring independent pharmacies to avoid using money-saving services outside the company's pharmacy benefit manager network, according to a House Judiciary Committee report released Wednesday, The Hill reported.
The report concluded that CVS Caremark, the company's PBM, used its market power to stifle competition from third-party "hub" services that help patients access specialty medications and increase price transparency.
According to the report, internal company documents show CVS leveraged its pharmacy network contracts to learn how hub models operate and then changed its rules to prevent independent pharmacies from working with those services.
"In 2019, CVS Health developed a plan to invest heavily in the digital pharmacy sector after facing intense competition from the likes of PillPack, Phil, and Blink," the report states. "After surveilling competing rival hubs and investigating independent pharmacies that work with those hubs, CVS Health began taking aggressive action to eliminate any outside competition."
The report concluded that "it is possible that CVS Health's conduct violated the antitrust laws."
CVS Health said it is reviewing the committee's findings and defended its position, The Hill reported.
"We are reviewing the report," said David Whitrap, CVS Health's vice president of communications. "We are not opposed to hubs or other innovative models to improve the patient experience. In May 2025 we updated our provider manual to make it easier for pharmacies in our network to use them."
The report said CVS initially justified its actions by citing concerns about fraud in hub systems but provided no evidence to back those claims. The company later argued it was removing overpriced drugs from its formulary to reduce costs for patients and plan sponsors, such as employers.
Internal documents reviewed by the committee, however, showed CVS instead targeted what it labeled "unfavored medications," pressuring independent pharmacies to stop dispensing them.
"This conduct makes it more difficult for pharmacies to choose to work with hubs, deprives consumers of the benefits of these innovations, and creates barriers to entry for potential CVS Health competitors," the report said.
Lawmakers said CVS appeared to reverse course only after the committee launched its investigation in December 2024. While the company indicated it planned to revise its provider manual to allow pharmacies to work with hubs without restriction, the report noted that the changes have not fully materialized and could be undone.
The committee concluded that the disruption to hub services not only benefited CVS financially but also harmed consumers by limiting access to lower-cost options and innovative care models.
PBMs act as intermediaries between insurers, drug manufacturers, and pharmacies and have come under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators.
The three largest PBMs — CVS Caremark, Cigna's Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx — control roughly 60% of the market.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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