On April 13, 2021, CVS, the nation's largest drug store chain, entered into a "Corporate Sponsorship Agreement" with the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Under the terms of the agreement, the ADA agreed "to identify and acknowledge [CVS] as a supporter of the organization and the diabetes cause." Further, the agreement provided CVS with a license "to use the ADA Marks, solely to identify Company as a supporter of the ADA."
I was not aware of this lawsuit - thanks for the information. What this brought to my mind -- perhaps unfairly -- is the relationship between AARP and insurance companies.
All in the name of greed. More corporate chicanery. About 4 months ago, my insurer, in their great and awesome wisdom, decreed that my transplant meds no longer would be supplied by Walgreen's and instead would come from (you guessed it) CVS. In reality, Aetna had quietly "acquired" CVS. What a debacle it's been. Am I surprised by this corporate grifting? Not in the least. Someone there has been going to trump University for real.
Anyway, I hope they get the stuffing beaten out of them as they lose the suit and appeal. I hope they are forced to publicly disclose their malfeasence and that new instructions are enacted to put corporate greed in check.
I guess that the best way to do that would be to tax the *()^% out of them eh?
Thank you for honest reporting. It’s hard to imagine the amount of suffering these corporations inflict upon society all in the name of greed, you shine a light in these dark spaces.
Thanks for providing more detail on this story and the case. The key point-CVS could have, and should have, just committed to fundraise through customer donations or outright commit to donate. The marketing and image factory got ahead of itself, imo. I will continue to be on the lookout for details of this and the Kroger-Albertsons merger, which will leave consumers with very few options in our country, especially out west.
My employer's health plan included prescription drug coverage, but we could only get three months at a time using CVS. I refuse to patronize this company. I use a different pharmacy and simply go monthly or use GoodRx
They constantly offer "coupons" that you actually can't use for anything in the store except maybe a pack of gum. Every time I've added a coupon to my card, they insist it's not on there. It's clearly intentional unfair trade practices.
The whole trend of these billion dollar companies virtue signaling but then having customers actually "donating" is obscene. Starbucks did this kind of scam with bottled water. Just donate the damn money from your own profits. I hope the plaintiffs win.
In NYC the buzz was brazen snatch and go theft in CVS and Dwane Reed and Walgreens, etc. Of course political adds made hay out of this and “law and order” candidates capitalized on the stories. The information in your piece was not the buzz. Not sexy enough. Also a story like this too is nuanced and requires more focus and close reading than most readers are willing to do. Hence Popular Information which has an audience that is willing to pay for investigative reporting and to spend the time to CLOSELY read and to think. So thanks again. It might also be good to contrast the faux $10 million with the lobbying monies spent by CVS. And of course we all remember the part CVS paid in the tragic opioid scandal.
If anything CVS learned this “technique” from state lottery officials who’s advertising says the lottery supports education when in fact all it does is lower the taxpayer funding for education, teachers, schools and students don’t get a nickel more in funding. As others have mentioned AARP is no better. If anything this is more about disclosure but with all the Republican dominated state houses we can bet the enforcement will be non-existent.
Picked up some medication and did some shopping before I went home last night...at CVS. Consumerism is just a minefield of ethical dilemmas these days.
The ADA must have the world’s worst deal negotiation team. Given that they offer up their name and corporate goodwill, they sure don’t get much for it. Separately, I do hope the suit succeeds, partly because I would love to see CVS’ extreme weasel lawyers lose. Wordsmithing A-holes!
This type of corporate malfeasance and greed is an example of monopolistic power in pharmacy industry - when companies are able to operate with few or no repercussions, they will always help themselves at the expense of consumers - in this case literally. The shoplifting story is another example, too. Large companies don’t care that they’ve raised the costs and created barriers to essential services - they only care about profits. In the case of CVS (& the other monopolistic pharmacies), people are responding to their tactics by shoplifting and who can blame them?
We need universal healthcare (including Rx) & some kind of universal basic income (call it what you want), which should be financed by corporate & high net worth individuals taxes. Breaking the pharmacy monopolies is the start of how we get there.
I recently switched my Part D plan from CVS/Aetna to Walmart/Humana and saving almost $500 a year. Using Walmart pharmacy is the least expensive, but I will go to an independent pharmacy as long as I can afford it. My Father was an independent pharmacist, so it's in my blood.
My pharmacist told me that a lot of people were switching to Humana.
I especially appreciated the light you shine on stories like this, which most media neglect.
I was not aware of this lawsuit - thanks for the information. What this brought to my mind -- perhaps unfairly -- is the relationship between AARP and insurance companies.
All in the name of greed. More corporate chicanery. About 4 months ago, my insurer, in their great and awesome wisdom, decreed that my transplant meds no longer would be supplied by Walgreen's and instead would come from (you guessed it) CVS. In reality, Aetna had quietly "acquired" CVS. What a debacle it's been. Am I surprised by this corporate grifting? Not in the least. Someone there has been going to trump University for real.
Anyway, I hope they get the stuffing beaten out of them as they lose the suit and appeal. I hope they are forced to publicly disclose their malfeasence and that new instructions are enacted to put corporate greed in check.
I guess that the best way to do that would be to tax the *()^% out of them eh?
Thank you for honest reporting. It’s hard to imagine the amount of suffering these corporations inflict upon society all in the name of greed, you shine a light in these dark spaces.
Disgusting. But where can we go for our insulin and other supplies? Walgreens? Our entire HC industry is based solely on greed.
Thanks for providing more detail on this story and the case. The key point-CVS could have, and should have, just committed to fundraise through customer donations or outright commit to donate. The marketing and image factory got ahead of itself, imo. I will continue to be on the lookout for details of this and the Kroger-Albertsons merger, which will leave consumers with very few options in our country, especially out west.
The only retail theft is the price gouging.
My employer's health plan included prescription drug coverage, but we could only get three months at a time using CVS. I refuse to patronize this company. I use a different pharmacy and simply go monthly or use GoodRx
They constantly offer "coupons" that you actually can't use for anything in the store except maybe a pack of gum. Every time I've added a coupon to my card, they insist it's not on there. It's clearly intentional unfair trade practices.
The whole trend of these billion dollar companies virtue signaling but then having customers actually "donating" is obscene. Starbucks did this kind of scam with bottled water. Just donate the damn money from your own profits. I hope the plaintiffs win.
In NYC the buzz was brazen snatch and go theft in CVS and Dwane Reed and Walgreens, etc. Of course political adds made hay out of this and “law and order” candidates capitalized on the stories. The information in your piece was not the buzz. Not sexy enough. Also a story like this too is nuanced and requires more focus and close reading than most readers are willing to do. Hence Popular Information which has an audience that is willing to pay for investigative reporting and to spend the time to CLOSELY read and to think. So thanks again. It might also be good to contrast the faux $10 million with the lobbying monies spent by CVS. And of course we all remember the part CVS paid in the tragic opioid scandal.
If anything CVS learned this “technique” from state lottery officials who’s advertising says the lottery supports education when in fact all it does is lower the taxpayer funding for education, teachers, schools and students don’t get a nickel more in funding. As others have mentioned AARP is no better. If anything this is more about disclosure but with all the Republican dominated state houses we can bet the enforcement will be non-existent.
Picked up some medication and did some shopping before I went home last night...at CVS. Consumerism is just a minefield of ethical dilemmas these days.
Great report, Judd. You seem to be the only one who catches these corporate sleights-of-hand.
The ADA must have the world’s worst deal negotiation team. Given that they offer up their name and corporate goodwill, they sure don’t get much for it. Separately, I do hope the suit succeeds, partly because I would love to see CVS’ extreme weasel lawyers lose. Wordsmithing A-holes!
Hmm crickets about this but headlines for shoplifting…media bias much?
This type of corporate malfeasance and greed is an example of monopolistic power in pharmacy industry - when companies are able to operate with few or no repercussions, they will always help themselves at the expense of consumers - in this case literally. The shoplifting story is another example, too. Large companies don’t care that they’ve raised the costs and created barriers to essential services - they only care about profits. In the case of CVS (& the other monopolistic pharmacies), people are responding to their tactics by shoplifting and who can blame them?
We need universal healthcare (including Rx) & some kind of universal basic income (call it what you want), which should be financed by corporate & high net worth individuals taxes. Breaking the pharmacy monopolies is the start of how we get there.
I recently switched my Part D plan from CVS/Aetna to Walmart/Humana and saving almost $500 a year. Using Walmart pharmacy is the least expensive, but I will go to an independent pharmacy as long as I can afford it. My Father was an independent pharmacist, so it's in my blood.
My pharmacist told me that a lot of people were switching to Humana.
Boycott? Enforce anti-monopoly laws?