Farris v. RxBenefits Inc.

Plaintiff Farris filed a class action complaint against RxBenefits Inc., a pharmacy benefit manager, in the Northern District of Alabama. The suit alleges that RxBenefits breached fiduciary duties under ERISA and engaged in deceptive practices by utilizing opaque spread pricing mechanisms and undisclosed rebate arrangements. Farris claims the company, acting as a fiduciary for self-insured health plans, deliberately inflated prescription drug costs to retain excessive profits at the expense of plan participants and beneficiaries. The complaint asserts that RxBenefits artificially widened the spread between the price it negotiates with pharmacies and the price it charges its health plan clients, while misleadingly marketing its services as lowering drug costs. Filed on September 10, 2025, the action seeks monetary damages, disgorgement of profits, and injunctive relief to reform the company's pricing transparency practices.

Pending litigation; class certification motion under review before Judge Annemarie Carney Axon, with discovery ongoing as of early 2026.

Whether RxBenefits Inc., as a pharmacy benefit manager, breached ERISA fiduciary duties and engaged in unfair or deceptive trade practices by utilizing spread pricing and failing to disclose material drug pricing information to health plan sponsors and beneficiaries, thereby inflating prescription drug costs for patients.

The case has intensified congressional and regulatory scrutiny of pharmacy benefit manager pricing models, contributing to proposed bipartisan legislation on PBM transparency and spread pricing reform. It has amplified patient advocacy campaigns against hidden healthcare costs and prompted multiple employer-sponsored health plans to audit their PBM contracts for similar undisclosed pricing schemes.