HIV Bias Suit Against CVS Tests Bounds of Obamacare Protections

Californians with HIV and AIDS are taking on their drug plan middleman in a fight over how they get the medications they need to survive.

Their proposed class action against CVS Caremark—green-lighted by a federal appeals court last month—is testing the bounds of the Affordable Care Act’s antidiscrimination protections and could open the door to more litigation against powerful pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that control how drug benefit plans operate.

The case has the potential to bring more clarity to how Obamacare’s antidiscrimination protections are interpreted, said Elizabeth Pendo, a law professor at Saint Louis University Law School, who ...