For Immediate Release
December 14, 2017
Contact:
Marcus Mrowka
202-879-4733 Cell: 202-531-0689
mmrowka@aft.org
www.aft.org
AFT President Randi Weingarten on the Fifth Anniversary of the Sandy Hook Shooting
WASHINGTON— Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten on the fifth anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.:
“Today we remember the educators and young children who were violently gunned down in their classrooms five years ago in Newtown. We remember Charlotte, Anne Marie, Josephine, Dawn, Daniel, Caroline, Avielle, Ana, Rachel, Madeleine, Jessica, Catherine, Victoria, Noah, Benjamin, James, Emilie, Mary, Lauren, Allison, Chase, Dylan, Jesse, Olivia, Jack and Grace. We remember the courageous actions by educators and school staff to save their students by hiding them in closets and bathrooms, helping them flee out of windows and shielding them with their own bodies. We remember the school custodian who ran ahead of the gunman locking classroom doors to keep him out and keep people safe. We remember the pain and the mourning. We remember how the community of Newtown united to heal and support one another, and the work of our local unions to make sure teachers, school staff and children had the supports they needed to treat their trauma, feel safe and secure, and allow them to get back to teaching and learning. And we also remember the inaction by lawmakers to prevent people from having easy access to deadly assault weapons.”
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MAPE members and dependents have been receiving letters from CVS Caremark notifying them that important changes effecting their medications would take place starting Jan. 1, 2018. CVS Caremark will begin managing our employee and dependent prescription benefit plan Jan. 1.
The change indicates that medication(s) being taken by the letter recipient will be considered non-preferred under your new prescription benefit plan. This means that the medication is either going up in cost or is not being covered resulting in the employee or dependent paying 100 percent of the cost. The problem is, the letter does not distinguish between whether the coverage no longer exists, or the copay amount is changing. In some cases, there may not even be an increase in the cost of the prescription.
The letter encourages members to contact their doctors directly to determine if a preferred medication is available or to visit the CVS/Caremark website to assist in finding a preferred medication. Unfortunately, your doctor will not know what medications are preferred and covered, and your visit to the website will unlikely determine which medication you could switch to. There is also no way to indicate whether your current medication is going up in cost or not being covered without actually contacting CVS Caremark.
If you received this letter, we urge you to contact CVS Caremark’s SEGIP line at 1-844-345-3234 with all your questions. You will get a recorded greeting and then a pause. A trained staff will then answer the call and be able to assist you by looking you up by name and birthdate.
By having CVS Caremark as the state’s single pharmacy benefit manager, it is projected to save employees $30 million to $40 million per biennium in additional increases in employee out-of-pocket costs. We urge you to work with your doctor and CVS Caremark to find a covered prescription that will treat your condition and provide the best savings to you.