Activist, author and playwright Larry Kramer had written an op-ed for POZ about his frustration with mandatory mail order, but I wanted to find more people who had run into this problem, as well as pharmacists. After much persistence on my part, the lawyer who had filed the class-action lawsuit against Anthem Blue Cross connected me with “John Doe,” the lead plaintiff. I scoured the internet for more patients, some of whom I tracked down through their comments on Kramer’s post and one by POZ editor-in-chief Oriol Gutierrez. The American Academy of HIV Medicine, which credentials pharmacists as well as physicians, put me in touch with pharmacists who specialize in working with people with HIV. I was amazed at how the New York Attorney General’s Office appeared to be patting itself on the back and praising Empire Blue Cross for allowing people who need HIV medications and other so-called “specialty drugs” to continue to get them from a bricks-and-mortar pharmacy. The AG’s office seemed oblivious to the fact that community pharmacies have to go to great lengths to get insurance companies’ permission to dispense specialty drugs, a fact confirmed by an Empire Blue Cross spokeswoman and Kramer’s pharmacy.
