A pharmacy in Hot Springs Village has hauled an insurance company to court for attempting to kick it out of its network.
The reason?
Village HealthMart Drug refused to fill prescriptions when it would be paid less than the cost of buying the drugs, according to its lawsuit, which was first filed last month in Saline County Circuit Court.
Village said it was allowed to make the business move as a result of a change in the state law last year.
As a result, Aetna Health Management LLC and its subsidiary, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., said on July 15 that the Village would be severed from its Medicare Part D network for declining to fill a valid prescription, which breached its contract with Aetna.
Medicare Part D provides coverage to seniors in Arkansas, and Village said that seniors would suffer if it was removed from the network, according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Nate Steel of Steel Wright & Collier PLLC of Little Rock. The pharmacy is the only one in a 12-mile radius.
Village Healthmart said that state law now allows it to “decline to provide the pharmacist services to a patient” if the pharmacist will be paid less than the cost to buy the medication.
Saline County Circuit Judge Robert Herzfeld has issued a temporary restraining order preventing Aetna from removing Village Healthmart from the network while the case is being sorted out.
The lawsuit has been moved to U.S. District Court in Little Rock.
As of Thursday, Aetna hasn’t filed an answer in the case and its attorneys didn’t immediately return a call for comment.
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