{"id":36540,"date":"2015-08-06T18:18:21","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T22:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=36540"},"modified":"2015-08-06T18:18:21","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T22:18:21","slug":"cvs-drops-28-drugs-including-viagra-from-insurance-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2015\/08\/cvs-drops-28-drugs-including-viagra-from-insurance-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"CVS Drops 28 Drugs, Including Viagra, From Insurance Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-36541\" title=\"blue pill\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/blue-pill.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"177\" height=\"139\" \/>According to CNN Money\u00a0and other sources, CVS plans to drop 28 prescription drugs, including Viagra, from its list of covered medicines beginning 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Though the drugs will still be available at CVS\/pharmacy stores, customers who use CVS\/Caremark insurance will no longer receive coverage for them,<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->However, the company will still cover cheaper alternatives to the drugs affected \u2014 for example, it will cover Cialis, made by Eli Lilly, to treat erectile dysfunction.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For those drugs that are removed, equally effective products with lower overall costs remain available,&#8221; CVS said in a statement. &#8220;Since introducing our industry-leading and rigorous approach &#8230; we have delivered significant savings for our plan sponsors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0New York Daily News\u00a0notes that drug makers sometimes give pharmacy benefit managers discounts for shutting out competitors. CVS stopped covering Bayer&#8217;s rival ED drug Levitra in January 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Since that year, the company\u2019s list of excluded drugs has sharply risen from 34 to 124, which will be the latest figure when 2016 rolls around.<\/p>\n<p>See below for the full list of drugs CVS will drop from its coverage next year:<\/p>\n<p>Abilify (antipsychotic)<\/p>\n<p>Amitiza (irritable bowel disease)<\/p>\n<p>Avonex (multiple sclerosis)<\/p>\n<p>Bydureon (diabetes)<\/p>\n<p>Carac (dermatology)<\/p>\n<p>Cardizem, including Cardizem CD, Cardizem LA and its generic (high blood pressure)<\/p>\n<p>Clobetasol spray (dermatology)<\/p>\n<p>Clobex spray (dermatology)<\/p>\n<p>Cymbalta (depression)<\/p>\n<p>Diovan (high blood pressure)<\/p>\n<p>Exforge, including Exforge HCT (high blood pressure)<\/p>\n<p>Extavia (multiple sclerosis)<\/p>\n<p>Fluorouracil cream 0.5% (dermatology)<\/p>\n<p>Fortesta (testosterone replacement)<\/p>\n<p>Fosrenol (kidney disease)<\/p>\n<p>Incruse Ellipta (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)<\/p>\n<p>Intuniv (ADHD)<\/p>\n<p>Invokameet (diabetes)<\/p>\n<p>Invokana (diabetes)<\/p>\n<p>Matzim LA (high blood pressure)<\/p>\n<p>Monovisc (monovisc)<\/p>\n<p>Noritate (dermatology)<\/p>\n<p>Plegridy (multiple sclerosis)<\/p>\n<p>Qsymia (anti-obesity)<\/p>\n<p>Relistor (gastrointestinal)<\/p>\n<p>Valcyte (anti-infective)<\/p>\n<p>Viagra (erectile dysfunction)<\/p>\n<p>Zubsolv (opioid dependence)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to CNN Money\u00a0and other sources, CVS plans to drop 28 prescription drugs, including Viagra, from its list of covered medicines beginning 2016. Though the drugs will still be available&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}