Curry and Tron: What is Caremark's "dirty little secret"?

From John Curry
10/23/05

Duane, I have a hunch ALSO that Caremark saw to it that in their contract with STRS -- there is a "dirty little secret" written into this contract that stipulates Caremark will be empowered to determine what information about the contract will be released to the public AND WHAT INFORMATION WON'T BE. Heck, I'll bet you a lunch in St. Paris that this is how our contract reads! John

From Duane Tron
October 23, 2005
Subject: Re: Caremark, a "Worsty" award, and lack of transparency to taxpayers

My take based on law is as follows: The law regarding PUBLIC disclosure for the care, use, expenditure,and investment of PUBLIC funds should take precedent over any such agreement! This should render any such agreement null and void because it violates the ORC and Federal Law. In other words it IS against the law to agree to any such deal. The STRS HC negotiating component is in violation of LAW, as well as CareMark. This is the exact reason such laws exist and that is because of the mess they have uncovered in Illinois. The only time the law can be side stepped is when it involves a matter of National Security. This means when it threatens the security and safety of the people of the United States. These types of agreements don't involve national security!!

Our funds are public money subject to public scrutiny! As usual we have another court ruling in Ohio where the judge doesn't know the law and obviously doesn't know his you know what from a hole in the ground. This is another one of those situations where we have Ohio judges making law and legislating from the bench! We need to challenge this and we need to challenge it now! Trade secrets my you know what??!!! This is simply a cover for possible corruption!

We need to look for a law firm that has taken on PBM's and contact them ASAP. We should ask them to take it on contingency and have the illustrious Judge Reece order them to reimburse our attorney fees and expenses like he has done for the non-investment staff at STRS. What's good for them should be good for Ohio's outstanding retired teachers who have devoted our lives to teaching young people for substandard pay and in substandard working conditions. Do you think???!! We have to really start pushing the envelope with these people. Up until now they have just been patronizing us. They throw us a crumb here and a crumb there to keep us at bay and to-date it's been working. My take for what it's worth!

From John Curry
Sunday, October 23, 2005

This is the same "stonewall" CORE member Nancy Hamant met with when the Warren Co. Retired Teachers Assn. took STRS to court to see their contract between Caremark (a pharmacy benefits manager of our Rx program) and the Ohio STRS. The suit was "slapped down" due to a sweetheart clause written into the law to protect this information under the guise of this information being a "TRADE SECRET!" The PBM's win this in every instance and the public be damned- even on public contracts such as the STRS/Caremark contract and the the good people of Illinois. John, a Proud CORE member


From pantagraph.com ( a central Illinois news website)

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Greenberg: Being awarded a 'Worsty' is not a good thing

A little more than a week ago, we found out The Pantagraph played a role in helping some government officials win a new -- and dubious -- honor.

The Illinois Press Association announced the first "Worsty" awards -- the top 10 Opening Meetings Act violations and top 10 Freedom of Information Act violations.

The purpose of the annual awards is to stop granting them because we eventually have no violations.

We've got a long way to go.

"Despite increased vigilance by our organization, the attorney general's office, and other watchdog groups, the abuses of these two access laws continue to escalate. These new 'awards' will identify the worst offenders each year. We hope that this will help to curtail future abuses," said Larry Green, president/publisher of Pioneer Press newspapers and chairman of IPA's government relations committee.

Pantagraph Publisher Linda Lindus, who serves on the government relations committee, said, "The 'Worsties' are a sad commentary on the misunderstanding of the public's business by public bodies or officials."

Chris Doyle, publisher of one of our sister papers, the Daily Chronicle in DeKalb, has been one of those coordinating the "Worsties."

Doyle announced the awards Oct. 14 at IPA's annual convention in Springfield. "We will announce only the top 10 violators in each category, but there are hundreds of examples from which to choose throughout the state that could be considered. The ... problem continues to spiral out of control," Doyle said.

The two instances we reported on were in the Freedom of Information Act category.

The Pantagraph, three other papers and The Associated Press all reported earlier this year about a state government contract with a company that made it next to impossible for the public to find out how our money is being spent.

At the "Worsties" presentation, we heard the following:

"The state Department of Central Management Services denied a Freedom of Information request filed by state Senators Dale Righter of Charleston and Peter Roskam from the Chicago suburbs to see a copy of the state's contract with Caremark RX Inc.

"Caremark, a Tennessee-based company, manages pharmacy benefits for some 225,000 state government workers, dependents and retirees. The agency released only a copy of the contract that was redacted, with much of the most important information missing.

"Incredibly, Caremark went to court to prevent the release of the publicly funded contract to publicly elected officials. The dirty little secret contained in the contract between Caremark and the state of Illinois was a provision that gave Caremark the authority to determine what information would be released ... the private company contracting with the state controlled what public information would be released. The state not only agreed to allow it to happen, it codified it in a contract."

We also heard about a "Worsty" heading to Ford County. "Ford County Sheriff Bill Kean refused to turn over his department's employment policy manual to the County Board. The County Board filed an FOI request formally asking for access to the manual. Sheriff Kean denied the request on the grounds he believes the County Board has no right to intrude in the operation of his department. County Board members, meanwhile, said they need the information for insurance coverage and other purposes."

Doug Ray, president and CEO of the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights and the new IPA board president, underscored the lack of penalties for violators of the two acts. He said there's little consequence or punishment when local government officials abuse their authority by not complying with the acts.

"The IPA is a private newspaper association, and we don't have the authority to hold violators accountable for their actions," Ray said.

Even though a newspaper group is organizing these "awards" -- this is not a media issue. It's your issue more than ours.

The public's business should be done in public, and that's becoming more difficult for a number of reasons.

And after more than 25 years in the newspaper business, I realize a lot of these violations are done in ignorance.

But many are not.

Doing the public's business in public can be difficult. But there's no other way for a democracy to work. Here's hoping the "Worsties" have a short life -- although I'm afraid that won't happen.

Terry Greenberg is editor of The Pantagraph. Contact him at (309) 820-3230 or at tgreenberg@pantagraph.com