AG Tim Griffin sues pharmacy benefit managers for involvement in Arkansas opioid epidemic

Attorney General Tim Griffin has filed a lawsuit against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) Optum, Inc., and Express Scripts, Inc., and their subsidiaries for "their roles as a cause of the opioid epidemic in Arkansas."

By: Samantha Romano
THV11

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Attorney General Tim Griffin has filed a lawsuit against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) Optum, Inc., and Express Scripts, Inc., and their subsidiaries for "their roles as a cause of the opioid epidemic in Arkansas."

The lawsuit, filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, alleges that the PBM defendants:

• Fueled the opioid epidemic in Arkansas by increasing opioid utilization by placing opioids on lower tiers of their formularies, controlling what less addictive pain treatments were available to patients, and falsely representing that their formularies were designed to be cost-effective and achieve favorable health outcomes but instead were designed to maximize profits;
• Operated online retail pharmacies that dispensed billions of morphine milligram equivalents of opioids while failing to follow state and federal laws on controlled substances; and,
• Were aware of the opioid epidemic in Arkansas and failed to take any action.

By 2016, Arkansas had the second-highest opioid prescription rate in the nation, at nearly twice the national average with 114.6 opioids being dispersed for every 100 Arkansans.

Read more here.