NEW YORK, March 10, 2026, 10:28 EDT
A federal judge in Manhattan has let key claims move forward in a proposed class action that targets JPMorgan Chase over alleged mismanagement of its health and prescription benefits plan. According to the lawsuit, employees in the country’s biggest bank say they were charged too much for both drugs and premiums.
This ruling drops into the middle of an escalating dispute over how large companies oversee drug-plan vendors. It comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 2025 Cornell decision, which lowered the bar for workers to keep certain ERISA cases alive early on. ERISA is the federal law covering workplace benefit plans.
JPMorgan faces a fresh legal challenge only weeks after assuring investors that first-quarter investment-banking fees and markets revenue were on the upswing, while reaffirming its 2026 adjusted expense goal of $105 billion.
At issue: JPMorgan’s self-funded health plan. Here, the company—not an external insurer—takes on the risk of paying claims. According to the complaint, the bank brought in CVS Caremark as its pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM. That’s the intermediary handling drug price negotiations, claims processing, and choosing covered medicines. The allegation? JPMorgan failed to keep close tabs on its spending.
Workers allege the plan shelled out inflated amounts for 366 generics—average markups clocked in at 211%. Among the details: one cited case involves a 30-unit teriflunomide prescription billed at $6,229.23, a jump from $16.20. The judge said employees could pursue claims that JPMorgan let CVS Caremark collect repeated, unauthorized excessive payments; CVS Caremark’s parent company, CVS Health, counts as an investment-banking client of JPMorgan. The bank hasn’t commented.
Rochon pared back the case, tossing out the fiduciary-duty allegations involving loyalty and prudence. Still, she allowed the prohibited-transaction accusations to proceed — basically, claims that the plan may have shelled out too much to a service provider. “Paying more for prescription drugs constitutes an injury recognized under the law,” said Kai Richter, the employees’ attorney, after the decision. Alm Assets
The case drops as PBMs face intensifying scrutiny, regulators and plan sponsors both zeroing in on their pricing practices. Back in January, the FTC reported that CVS Caremark, Optum, and Express Scripts inflated prices on certain drugs by anywhere from hundreds to thousands of percent between 2017 and 2022. In total, the three pocketed $7.3 billion more than their estimated acquisition costs. CVS Health countered that pushback, with David Whitrap, vice president of external affairs, arguing that some critics “benefit from weakening PBMs.” Reuters
JPMorgan isn’t the only company in the crosshairs. Last year, Wells Fargo was hit with a lawsuit accusing it of overpaying for drugs under its employee plan. Then in 2024, Johnson & Johnson was also named in a class action. The lawsuits point to a shift: plaintiffs are now targeting employers themselves, not just the pharmacy benefit managers, over the costs and arrangements of prescription drug coverage.
The outlook remains complicated. According to the Supreme Court, ERISA defendants are allowed to assert statutory exemptions even after a suit is filed—like arguing a plan paid just “reasonable compensation” for needed services. Justice Samuel Alito flagged the risk: weaker lawsuits might still drag on, leading to steep discovery costs. Rochon, for his part, noted that JPMorgan still appears to have plenty of possible defenses against the surviving claims. Reuters
