March 14, 2025
Prioritizing Lucrative Investment Banking Clients and Putting Workers Second
A new class action lawsuit filed alleges that JPMorgan mismanaged its employee health and prescription benefits program resulting in its current and former employees vastly overpaying for premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
The case alleges that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and other executives who claimed to be personally involved in the employee health plan, abandoned efforts at prudent management under pressure from lucrative investment banking clients of JPMorgan in the health industry.
The complaint further alleges that JPMorgan mismanaged its prescription drug plan in a number of ways that would have been obvious to any prudent manager. Other smaller companies avoided these costly mistakes, which JPMorgan’s own industry trade groups specifically warned against. These mistakes include:
- Using a flawed process to select CVS Caremark to administer its employee prescription benefits plan while CVS was a major investment banking client of JPMorgan’s, resulting in employees overpaying for prescriptions
- Overcharging employees for generic prescriptions available at vastly lower prices, including for some who went to a pharmacy without insurance.
- Allowing Caremark to list its own overpriced Humira biosimilar as the only option on the employee health plan formulary
The 97-page complaint was filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York. The three class representatives are current or former JPMorgan employees from across the country. The plaintiffs are represented by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Fairmark Partners, LLP.
“This case alleges that JPMorgan executives put lucrative investment banking revenue ahead of their fiduciary obligations to their employees, resulting in higher premiums and health care prices for employees and their families,” said Michael Lieberman of Fairmark Partners, LLP. “As one of the most powerful corporations in the world, JPMorgan has no excuse for allowing PBMs and Big Pharma to overcharge its employees for prescription drugs and healthcare.”
“We look forward to prosecuting this important case on behalf of our clients. The stakes are high for JPMorgan’s employees, and JPMorgan has an obligation to put them first – not the company – when managing its health plan and prescription drug benefit program,” added Michelle Yau of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC (cohenmilstein.com) is a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, with over 100 attorneys across eight offices, that champions the causes of real people – workers, consumers, small business owners, investors, and whistleblowers – and works to deliver corporate reforms and fair markets for the common good.
Fairmark Partners, LLP (fairmarklaw.com) is a Washington, DC law firm that specializes in complex antitrust and healthcare litigation to hold corporations accountable for wrongdoing.
Together, Cohen Milstein and Fairmark are prosecuting three cutting-edge ERISA cases against JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Johnson & Johnson, alleging that the companies breached their fiduciary duties by agreeing to terms with their PBM that caused employees to overpay for prescription drugs.