Pharmacy chain CVS charged about 11,000 customers who have health insurance small copays when they picked up some recent prescriptions. What’s wrong with that? Those prescriptions were for generic contraceptive pills, which should be dispensed with no copay at all under the federal Affordable Care Act. Now those customers are due a refund.

CVS says that the erroneous copays were due to a glitch in the system that involved customers of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, an insurer in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The issue first came to public attention because of a letter from California Congresswoman Jackie Speier. One of her staff members in Washington had to fork over an erroneous $20 copay, and she sent a letter about the matter to the CEO of CVS.

“I am concerned that most women who are likely not familiar with their rights under the ACA may go without this essential family planning service that is supposed to be guaranteed to them under law,” she wrote. Not everyone is a Congressional staffer, after all.

For now, the problem appears to be limited to one insurance company and one pharmacy chain, but Rep. Speier’s office has received some complaints from her California district about similar problems, and CVS is investigating any complaints that it receives.

CVS says that they will issue checks to affected customers in early October, and customers of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield are no longer being charged copays they don’t owe.

After Glitch, CVS Gives 11,000 Birth Control Refunds [Kaiser Health News]
CVS illegally charging women for generic birth control [UPI]

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