CVS overcharged some prescription care customers: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CVS Caremark Corp has been charging some customers of its SilverScript Medicare prescription-drug programs higher prices than they were promised when they signed up for the plans in late 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The company told the Journal it had sent out letters of apology in March. It blamed the problem on a computer error, which it said led to prices for brand-name drugs to be listed about 4 percent lower than they should have been, the Journal reported.

CVS Caremark said it has been charging consumers the higher prices since the beginning of 2010 and generic drugs were not affected by the pricing problem, the Journal said. A CVS spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.

CVS notified the federal regulator, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, about the problem in January, the Journal said. A Medicare spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that it worked in conjunction with CVS to create a response under which CVS would offer a refund for the price difference to people who specifically asked for it.

Shares of CVS Caremark on Thursday closed up 2.4 at $34.59 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Valerie Lee)