(Bloomberg) — Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) was fined $1 million for providing erroneous information about pharmacies covered by its Medicare drug plans this year, potentially misleading elderly and disabled customers, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The company told Medicare patients that its plans covered medicine at 6,887 pharmacies that actually weren't in its networks, CMS said in an April 2 letter to the company. About 2,750 people complained to the Medicare agency after discovering their pharmacies weren't covered, in many cases after their prescriptions were rejected.
"The confusion created by errors in Aetna's pharmacy network directory on their website led to disruption in the marketplace," the Medicare agency's Civil Remedies Division said in its letter.
Aetna has previously said that most pharmacies weren't affected by the error, and that it would let its customers fill prescriptions at any pharmacy until Feb. 28.
