DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709120623

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   69 lines

BOARD: CVS SHOULD BE FINED $1.6 MILLION CVS FAILED TO MAKE SURE THAT 113 REVCOS WERE SMOOTHLY TRANSFERRED TO ECKERD CORP.

The nation's No. 2 drugstore retailer, CVS Corp., should be fined $1.6 million for its role in a chaotic takeover of 113 Revco drugstores in Virginia, a state pharmacy committee said Thursday.

The recommended fine, if approved, will probably be the largest ever imposed by a state health regulatory board in Virginia, said Robert Nebiker, deputy director of the Virginia Department of Health Professions.

A three-member committee of the Virginia Pharmacy Board believed CVS was responsible for assuring that the Revco drug stores were smoothly transferred to the new owner, Florida's Eckerd Corp.

Customers said they discovered the pharmacies knew little or nothing about them - from their first names to their violent allergies to certain medications. Others complained of prescription errors.

Pharmacists say the confusion in the weeks following the June buyout has since subsided.

Last month, the board placed Eckerd on probation and imposed a $100,000 fine.

A spokesman for Woonsocket, RI-based CVS declined to comment following the committee's announcement.

The committee's recommendation will either go to an administrative hearing or to the full pharmacy board which meets Oct. 9.

``This isn't over,'' Nebiker said. ``They can contest this.''

The problems stem from CVS's multibillion-dollar buyout of Revco.

In January, CVS announced plans to make the purchase. But first, it needed to respond to federal regulators' concerns over the clout of the combined companies in Virginia.

In response, CVS agreed to sell some of Revco's 234 stores in Virginia. It found an eager buyer in Clearwater, Fla.-based Eckerd, which agreed to purchase 113 of the drugstores.

But state pharmacy officials said CVS took Revco's computers and left Eckerd pharmacists with four months of store prescription records on microfiche.

That violates state law, which requires the transfer of two years of information. And because CVS failed to provide sufficient records, it ``effectively closed'' the Revco stores, Elizabeth Scott Russell, executive director of the pharmacy board, said.

``They did not transfer records in a way that business could go on uninterrupted,'' Russell said.

But CVS's attorney, Thomas Stallings, said Eckerd caused its own problems by asking for a speedy buyout even though the companies had not found a good way to get complete prescription records to pharmacists. CVS, he said, was willing to wait longer, but Eckerd wanted the purchase completed in June.

``We didn't impose that chaos on Eckerd,'' Stallings said.

An Eckerd spokesman would only say that both companies agreed to the arrangement.

For many pharmacists, the Revco-to-Eckerd changeover was a nightmare. Accustomed to Revco's sophisticated computer network, they were forced to look through sheets and sheets of microfiche, causing confusion and backlogs.

Consumer advocates, pharmacists and others say the two big chains focused on market concerns and a speedy buyout at a time when they should have been worried about customers' health.

``They just don't seem to take into account the interest of the patient at all,'' said Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, who is a pharmacist. ``There is a reason these laws are on the books. And they are very clear.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

The sale

CVS agreed to sell some of Revco's 234 stores in Virginia to

complete a multibillion-dollar buyout of the drug chain.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu