Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers sue CVS, alleging drug pricing fraud

The basics: Health insurers usually negotiate "lesser of" contracts with drug benefits middlemen — meaning they pay the negotiated drug price or the cash price that uninsured patients would pay, whichever is lower.

• However, the Blue Cross Blue Shield companies allege CVS offered lower cash prices on generic drugs to compete with Walmart and other low-cost pharmacies, but told insurers those cash prices were significantly higher than they actually were.
• CVS' goal, the BCBS insurers argue, was to force them to pay the highest rates possible.
• For example, people enrolled in CVS' cash discount program in 2015 got a 90-day supply of blood pressure medication nadolol for $11.99. But CVS told BCBS of Florida that the cash price was $180.99 and overcharged $169 as a result, according to court documents.

Between the lines: This same issue, allegedly overcharging for generic drugs, has marred CVS for years now.

• The original class-action lawsuit, filed in 2015, is supposed to go to trial this year. Unions have also filed class-action lawsuits.
• CVS "is defending itself against these claims," the company has said in financial filings.

Go deeper: Read the lawsuit and examples of drugs that were allegedly overcharged.