Stores Close to Protest CalOptima

The owners of about 50 drugstores in Little Saigon have filed a lawsuit and closed their shops to protest a county-run pilot program that they say would force them to divulge private information about their mostly Vietnamese customers.

Vietnamese American Independent Pharmacies Group, which claims to represent virtually all independent drugstores in the ethnic enclave, filed suit last month, saying CalOptima has threatened to withhold Medi-Cal payments unless the stores provide patient information. A court date has not been set.

CalOptima, which administers Medi-Cal payments in Orange County, says the requirement is part of a first-of-its-kind effort to curb fraud and cut costs. Most pharmacies in the county, including chain drugstores, have agreed to turn over patient information.

But in Little Saigon in Garden Grove and Westminster, where independent drugstores provide a cultural comfort that the chains do not and sometimes serve as gathering spots for Vietnamese, the request from the government is viewed with deep suspicion.

Some worry that their identification might be stolen or their medical maladies made public. CalOptima says such fears are groundless.

One group of customers in the community -- the largest concentration of Vietnamese outside Vietnam -- has formed the Committee for Medi-Cal Beneficiaries and taken out full-page ads in Vietnamese newspapers. The ads say CalOptima is “preying” on the sick and frail and cannot be trusted.

“They’re taking advantage of elders before we die,” said Vinh Pham, 77, who uses a cane and says he suffers from lumbar disease, prostate cancer and high blood pressure. “I can’t drive. Where am I going to buy drugs now? CalOptima is making everything very inconvenient and harder for us.”

Many pharmacies have closed in protest, hoping customer complaints will force Cal- Optima to rethink its requirements.

In Garden Grove on Friday, patients were greeted with locked doors at Tran Pharmacy in a Euclid Street strip mall with noodle shops and Vietnamese fast food. Pasted on the windows were English and Vietnamese fliers urging patients to call politicians and Medi-Cal to express their opposition.

“To protect the health and welfare of our patients and the community, please call the phone numbers below and request that you need to be able to obtain your CalOptima/ Medi-Cal medications at the pharmacy of your choice,” the flier read.

“This is ridiculous,” said Ngan Pham, 58, of Huntington Beach.

Pharmacist Thu Hang Tran, 42, owner of Tran Pharmacy, said it was difficult to turn away customers, especially seniors.

“But I’m not going to risk my patients’ privacy,” Tran said. “It’s unethical. CalOptima is just giving us a hard time so they can shut us down.”

Some said the shuttered pharmacies had cut off a vital connection.

“We are old and we don’t understand English,” said Nhan Van Bui, 70, of Santa Ana, who takes a bus to get his medications. “The labels are in Vietnamese and they explain the dosage to me in a way that I can understand.”

The one-year program, which began in December, requires Orange County pharmacies to provide patient information to the Fraud Prevention Institute, a private nonprofit group. Pharmacies that fail to comply will not be reimbursed by Cal- Optima for prescription drugs. CalOptima has 290,000 participants in Orange County.

Little Saigon pharmacists contend CalOptima is trying to drive out small drugstores by forcing them to sign the agreement. They said they have refused because it violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which addresses patient privacy.

The suit, filed in federal court in Santa Ana, seeks an injunction that would allow the pharmacies to serve CalOptima patients without turning over patient information.

Lynn Carman, an attorney for the Little Saigon pharmacies, said he planned to file another lawsuit Monday against CalOptima for damages.

Dianna Daly, CalOptima’s spokeswoman, said the agreement does not violate state or federal law. The 1996 law allows shared information for such purposes as consulting other doctors and fraud investigation.

“It’s a misunderstanding,” Daly said. “We want our pharmacies to be successful and we want everyone to be on the lookout for fraud-related issues.”

She said Vietnamese American pharmacies are not being targeted. Rather, she said, the program is countywide and is an attempt -- the first in the country of its sort -- to explore cutting drug costs and fraud.

Daly said the number of prescriptions filled in Orange County is enormous compared to areas of similar population, and pharmacy accounts for 24% -- or $185 million -- of the program’s $760 million annual budget, she said.

The patient information provided by pharmacies will remain confidential, she said.