OptumRx Wins Limited Right to Arbitrate Drug Reimbursement Case

An arbitrator will decide whether OptumRx must litigate two of five claims asserted by an Arkansas independent pharmacy in a proposed class action over allegedly unlawful insurance reimbursement practices, a federal appeals court said.

The pharmacy benefit manager didn’t waive its right to arbitrate common law claims Lackie Drug Store Inc. added to a complaint alleging its practices violated Arkansas law, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said Wednesday.

OptumRx, however, waived its right to arbitrate the trade practices claims in Lackie’s original complaint because it waited more than two years to assert it, Judge Bobby E. ...