{"id":348904,"date":"2026-03-20T09:51:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/348904\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T09:51:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:51:36","slug":"rep-aftyn-behn-calls-for-an-investigation-into-cvs-claims-that-pharmacies-are-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/348904\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Aftyn Behn calls for an investigation into CVS claims that pharmacies are closing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) \u2014 State Representative Aftyn Behn, (D-Nashville), raises concern about CVS&#8217;s recent messaging that their stores are closing in Tennessee, and calls for an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Behn has formally requested Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to investigate CVS health for potential antitrust law violations and for consumer deception connected to <a href=\"https:\/\/wapp.capitol.tn.gov\/apps\/BillInfo\/Default?BillNumber=HB1959&amp;ga=114\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HB 1959\/SB 2040<\/a> or the Fair Rx Act. The legislation would <a href=\"https:\/\/fox17.com\/news\/local\/In a recent state senate committee hearing, lawmakers heard differing testimony on whether CVS is bluffing with its signs at pharmacies, TV ads, and text message campaigns against the bill, or if pharmacies will actually close.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">prohibit pharmacy benefit managers<\/a> (PBMs) from owning or controlling retail pharmacies. <\/p>\n<p>In the letter, Rep. Behn addresses concerns that fall under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act and the Tennessee Trade Practices Act, such as reports that CVS sent messages to customers to oppose the legislation and advertisements warning that 1.5 million Tennesseans could lose access to care.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Behn also points to CVS Health\u2019s vertically integrated model\u2014through CVS Caremark\u2014as potentially monopolistic and discouraging of competitive business with independent pharmacies. The request also cites a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stateagreport.com\/news\/louisiana-ag-reaches-45-million-settlement-with-cvs-over-alleged-pbm-misconduct\/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">$45 million settlement in Louisiana<\/a> with CVS over PBM misconduct, including contact with patients during legislative debates.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is not merely a policy disagreement\u2014it is a question of whether a dominant healthcare corporation is leveraging its market power to mislead consumers, influence legislative outcomes, and suppress competition,&#8221; said Behn in the letter.<\/p>\n<p>CVS gave FOX 17 News the following statement: <\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>JOIN THE CONVERSATION (2)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We believe it\u2019s important to let our Tennessee customers and patients know about this harmful legislation that could shutter 134 trusted CVS Pharmacy locations and 25 trusted MinuteClinic locations. Our communications with customers comply with state and Federal law.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) \u2014 State Representative Aftyn Behn, (D-Nashville), raises concern about CVS&#8217;s recent messaging that their stores&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-348904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}