Hawkins BOE to consider entering national insulin price-fixing lawsuit

The Hawkins County Board of Education will consider entering a national lawsuit regarding alleged insulin price fixing that drove up the cost of healthcare nationwide, including health insurance costs for the school board.

Attorney Crystal Jessee, who represented Hawkins County in one of its opioid lawsuits, told the BOE at Thursday's meeting the insulin lawsuit came about as a result of information about insulin price fixing that was uncovered during the opioid lawsuit.

Jessee noted that when the opioid lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies had been settled, through discovery they learned there was a group called a "pharmacy benefit manager" that may be liable for damages as well.

"It was a group that some of the manufacturers had made up to start price fixing drugs," Jessee told the board. "We realized that they were price fixing opioids at the time, so we alleged RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) violations. During the discovery process, what we have figured out is they're not only price fixing opioids, they're price fixing insulin products. We have pulled the information and came to the conclusion they've been price fixing insulin since 2002. They've been price fixing the generic form of insulin since 2012-13."

As a result of those findings, Jessee said she is going back to all the counties she represented in the opioid lawsuits and asking them to allow her to sue the insulin manufacturers separately on their behalf.

There are 20 defendants in the pending insulin lawsuits, but Jessee said the biggest are Eli Lilly and Caremark.

Jessee noted that this is a multi-district litigation, as opposed to a class action lawsuit. The difference is that with multi-district litigation, damages are awarded per district based on their individual losses, as opposed to being divided among all plaintiffs.

The BOE would be eligible for damages because it buys its employee health insurance through a common benefit pool.

"What that means is Eli Lilly has made a man-made depletion of insulin," Jessee told the board. "Because of that man-made depletion, it had made your funding for health insurance for your employees increase. It has taken money out of our budgets. We see a huge bump, especially between 2013 and 2014. In the lawsuit, we sue Eli Lilly and Caremark and the pharmacy benefit managers because they took money from our citizens through their man-made depletion (of insulin)."

Jessee's proposed contract to represent the BOE in this lawsuit mirrors her contract with the County Commission in the opioid lawsuit in that if she wins funding for the county, she receives 30% plus expenses. If she doesn't win, the county doesn't pay anything.

The BOE didn't take any action on Jessee's lawsuit proposal but agreed to study the lawsuit and her contract and consider it at a later meeting.