Wisconsin couple suing Walgreens and OptumRx

A Wisconsin couple is suing Walgreens and a pharmacy benefits management company, alleging that their son died because he couldn’t afford a sudden $500 spike in his asthma medication. Shanon and William Schmidtknecht, of Poynette, filed their lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee on Jan. 21, a year to the day that their son Cole died at age 22. According to the lawsuit, Cole Schmidtknecht suffered from asthma all his life and managed it with daily doses of medication through an inhaler. He stopped at a Walgreens pharmacy in Appleton on Jan. 10, 2024, to refill his prescription and was told the cost had jumped from $66 to $539 out-of-pocket. Unable to afford the new cost, he left the pharmacy without the medication. He tried to manage his condition with his rescue inhaler but suffered a fatal asthma attack days later. The Schmidtknechts allege that pharmacy benefits management company OptumRX violated Wisconsin law by raising the cost of the medication without a valid medical reason and failing to provide 30 days‘ advance notice of drug price increases. The lawsuit alleges that the Walgreens pharmacy staffers failed to offer Cole any workarounds to obtain his usual medication and they didn’t contact OptumRx or Cole’s doctor to request an exception on Cole’s behalf. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.