My friend @DavidGoldfield is gonna commence to laughing with me today. As he may recall that when I was last with #CVSCaremark mail order pharmacy I wanted to be rid of their #Braille labels because I wanted smaller bottles. Then I left them and now that i'm back I have #ScripTalk but no Braille labels and turns out their regular bottles aren't a huge amount smaller than the bottles needed when there are Braille labels. So now guess who has decided they want Braille labels back. Yup that'd be me. #IWantBraille along with my #ScripTalk and so I'm on hold while the senior team executes my request now. #Here'sToBraille. Funny how preferences change.

Opinion Voices | Contributor: Focus on the real causes of the shortage in hormone treatments by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Suzanne Gilberg

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

The article explains that the nationwide shortage of estradiol hormone patches for menopausal women is not due to a surge in demand but stems from structural problems in the U.S. pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) system, where a few vertically integrated insurance‑pharmacy conglomerates (CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, OptumRx) control most drug coverage and logistics, giving little incentive to keep low‑margin generic products like estradiol patches consistently stocked and instead favoring higher‑priced alternatives; the piece also notes that prescription rates for hormone therapy have actually remained low, debunks media narratives blaming women, and offers practical short‑term coping strategies (alternative formulations, online or compounding pharmacies, calling ahead) while urging systemic reforms to break the PBM-driven supply constraints.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-04-20/estradiol-patch-shortage-drug-supply

#FDA #CVSCaremark #ExpressScripts #OptumRx #CVSHealth #Cigna #UnitedHealthGroup #FTC #

AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.

Well, to be filed under today's fun for no one, my medical provider had to intervene because the fine folks at #CVSCareMark mail order somehow had it in their systems that I was allergic to the very medication I take for my heart issue and didn't want to fill the prescription. Here's hoping this has now been rectified and we don’t' have to go through this nonsense at the time of every refill.
Samsung Bioepis has signed private label supply agreements with US PBM giants Express Scripts and CVS Caremark for its Stelara biosimilar, marking the first dual deal of its kind and expanding access to the US autoimmune drug market.
#YonhapInfomax #SamsungBioepis #StelaraBiosimilar #ExpressScripts #CVSCaremark #PBMSupplyDeal #Economics #FinancialMarkets #Banking #Securities #Bonds #StockMarket
https://en.infomaxai.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=72426
Well my saga with #CVSCaremark continues. When I first signed up to get prescriptions with them I selected #ScripTalk and #Braille thinking that it'd consist of the ScripTalk sticker on the bottom of a normal size medicine bottle and just the name of the medication in #Braille on that same bottle as other pharmacies had done in the past. That's not how they do things here. Rather, you get everything printed on the bottle in #Braille necessitating that your medicine comes in a vitamin size bottle. I contacted and then asked if I could continue to receive the drug identification sheets in #Braille and just have #ScripTalk on the bottles themselves. No problem they said. However, that seems impossible for them to achieve. I'm starting to believe the only way to get normal medicine bottles is to forego #Braille entirely and just get #ScripTalk only. I'll call them tomorrow during regular business hours in hopes of getting a supervisor.

Does every CVS look like it's perpetually going out of business? Few cars in the lot, no one inside, listless employees . . .

#CVSCaremark

Well, I, did, it. I, did, it! I switched my prescriptions or am in the process of switching my prescriptions away from #Accessible Pharmacy. I know, I know they're blind founded and owned and I really wanted to support but the absence of a web portal and app and the lack of good customer service and not always getting #Braille labels necessitated the change. #CVSCareMark here I come.

@secretlybatman @analgesicsleep Yep, there is a small woman-owned pharmacy 2 blocks from me which is considered in-network by CVS, so I know the pharmacist-owner and she is great.

However, she is still beholden to the billing/coding screwups of the CVS computer system, which is why my 10-day emergency supply of a different dosage Rx Is now 3 days late: ENDLESS PHONE CALLS WITH #CvsCaremark (more accurately known as CVS-Could-Not-Care-LESS)

We have entered the “switch all your prescriptions to OUR mail-order or you will have to pay cash” highway robbery. What about prescriptions Our Government says cannot be mailed? Just pick them up at OUR store.

I’m looking at you, #CVSCaremark