CVS Can’t Escape Proposed Class Suit Over Health Plan Smoker Fee

CVS Pharmacy Inc. must face most claims in a proposed class action challenging its practice of charging extra fees for health-care coverage to employees who use tobacco products.

It’s not clear whether CVS’s health plan provides an alternative standard for employees’ spouses to have their tobacco penalty waived as required by law, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said in an order docketed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California. The pharmacy’s health plan includes language describing how “you” may have the $500 annual penalty waived, and it’s ambiguous whether that language refers to employees and their ...