Loyalty Strained at Caremark

Meanwhile, Calpers has yet to raise any concerns about the Caremark probes. Like the federal government, Calpers switched from Medco to Caremark after Medco came under government scrutiny. But Calpers spokesman Clark McKinley told TheStreet.com last week that the Medco investigation had nothing to do with that decision.

To be fair, Caremark has not attracted a federal-level whistleblower lawsuit like the one pending against Medco. But as first reported by TheStreet.com in July, the federal Office of Inspector General inside the Office of Personnel Management has subpoenaed Michael Leonard -- the Chicago attorney representing the former Caremark pharmacists -- for information about the Florida case. The attorney general of Illinois has now subpoenaed Leonard as well, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The attorney general's office did not return a phone message from TheStreet.com. Meanwhile, Caremark spokesman Gerard Carney declined to comment even when asked about any new subpoenas. So far, the company has not disclosed anything indicating that it has received a subpoena from the federal agency. It also has not mentioned a different subpoena, unrelated to the multi-state probe, from the state of Illinois.

But Burns, for one, sees a company -- and, indeed, an industry -- at risk. He believes that companies like Caremark will eventually lose out to competitors that are more willing to show how they actually make their cash.

"Why would you possibly want to go to a PBM that won't tell you what's going on," he asked, "when there are PBMs that will?"

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