Blue Shield of California will team up with Amazon and Mark Cuban’s drug company to fix what it says is a “broken prescription drug system” and to provide more affordable care. 

To do so, Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan, announced a new pharmacy care model Thursday that will change the way medications are purchased and supplied to its 4.8 million members.

The current system “rewards some stakeholders for selling more drugs at higher costs,” Blue Shield said. The nonprofit wants to change that. 

“The current pharmacy system is extremely expensive, enormously complex, completely opaque, and designed to maximize the profit of participants instead of the quality, convenience and cost-effectiveness for consumers,” Blue Shield of California CEO Paul Markovich said. 

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Under the new plan, Amazon Pharmacy will be responsible for delivering the patient’s medications for free. It will also provide patients 24/7 access to pharmacists.

Meanwhile, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company will create a more affordable pricing model to help patients get their hands on low-cost medications even in-store at pharmacy counters. 

Abarca will handle the prescription drug claims. 

Blue Shield of California will still lean on CVS Caremark to provide specialty pharmacy services for members with complex conditions, including education and high-touch patient support. However, CVS will no longer oversee the administration of drug benefits, the WSJ reported. 

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CVS said in a statement to FOX Business that it looks “forward to providing care for Blue Shield of California’s members who require complex, specialty medications – as we have for nearly two decades.”

Once the multiyear strategy is fully implemented, Blue Shield plan expects to save up to $500 million in annual drug costs.

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Markovich touted that this new system will get “the right drugs to the right people at the right time at a substantially lower cost.“

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New Jersey has issued stop-work orders at 27 Boston Market restaurant locations across the state after labor officials say they found “multiple violations of workers’ rights, including more than $600,000 in back wages owed to 314 workers.” 

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) said it started investigating the restaurant chain known for its rotisserie chicken after receiving a complaint last November from an employee working at a location in Mercer County, 

“Since then, nearly three dozen additional complaints have been received naming several New Jersey Boston Market locations. Initial findings included citations for: unpaid/late payment of wages, hindrance of the investigation, failure to pay minimum wage, records violations, failure to pay earned sick leave, and failure to maintain records for earned sick leave,” the agency said in a statement. 

The temporarily closed restaurants are in Avenel, Blackwood, Clifton, East Brunswick, East Hanover, East Orange, Edison, Emerson, Ewing Township, Fair Lawn, Hackensack, Hamilton, Howell, Lodi, Mahwah, Mount Holly, North Arlington, North Vale, Ridgefield, Shrewsbury, Somerset, Succasunna, Union, Vineland, Waldwick and Woodbury. 

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Boston Market did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from FOX Business. 

“With restaurants across the country, Boston Market needs to set a better example for fair treatment of its workers,” Joseph Petrecca, assistant commissioner of NJDOL’s Division of Wage and Hour and Contract Compliance, said in a statement. “Thanks to the Murphy Administration, NJDOL has the tools to carry out large-scale enforcement efforts within the state so we can work with employers to stop worker exploitation, create sustainable change, and prevent future violations.” 

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Findings of the investigation have been sent to Boston Chicken of NJ, LLC, which the state says is the restaurant chain’s parent company. 

The NJDOL says its investigators have found “$607,471 in back wages owed to 314 workers, as well as $1,214,942 in liquidated damages. 

“Boston Chicken of NJ was also assessed an administrative fee of $182,241.30 and $549,500 in administrative penalties, for a total of $2,554,154.30,” it added. 

The state says Boston Market has requested a hearing to appeal the stop-work orders. 

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“NJDOL continues to monitor locations where stop-work orders have been issued, and can assess civil penalties of $5,000 per day against an employer conducting business in violation of the order,” labor officials also said. “The stop-work order may be lifted if and when any remaining back wages and penalties have been paid and all related issues have been resolved.” 

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After squatters took over his mother’s home, one handyman took the law into his own hands and uncovered a clever way to force them out. 

United Handyman Association founder Flash Shelton became the squatter himself. 

“I dissected the laws over a weekend. I basically figured out that until there’s civil action, the squatters didn’t have any rights. So if I could switch places with them, become the squatter myself, I would assume those squatter rights,” Shelton said on “Varney & Co” Thursday.

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After his father died, the family was trying to sell the home but learned squatters had taken over the residence. Squatters are individuals who do not own or rent a property but live there anyway.

Upon calling law enforcement, Shelton learned there was little police could do. 

“I called local law enforcement, and as soon as they saw that there was furniture in the house, they said that I had a squatter situation and they had basically no jurisdiction and they couldn’t do anything,” he said.

Shelton then decided to he could use squatters rights to take back him home. As a precaution, he also had his mother write and notarize a lease. 

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“I packed up my jeep, drove up there and paced out the joint around 4 a.m. I waited. About 8:00, 8:30 in the morning, three cars pulled out of the driveway and I made entrance to the house. I put up cameras, waited for them to come back,” he said. 

“They didn’t have a lease, so that never came into play. But when they came back, I just laid it out for them, told them that it was all locked up, cameras, and the only way they would get back in the house is if they broke in on camera, and I would prosecute. I told them they had a day to get their stuff out or the furniture was not theirs anymore.”

In many cities across the U.S., squatting is becoming a worse problem often due to progressive policies favoring squatters and tenants over landlords. 

According to Madison Ventures+ managing director Mitch Roschelle, real estate markets in cities like New York City, Philadelphia and Los Angeles could face an exacerbated squatter problem.

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In New York, squatters are granted rights after just 30 days, which makes it harder to evict. It’s a similar story in Los Angeles where landlords are often forced to pay just to get rid of tenants who fail to pay. And in Philadelphia, even after a court orders a person out of a home, sheriffs might show up to evict, but end up leaving rather than cause a confrontation.

“The laws are written to protect the tenant, not the landlord,” Roschelle told Fox News Digital in June. “The local laws that protect tenants at the expense of landlords have fueled this phenomenon because we’ve basically said forever it’s the landlord’s fault, not the tenant’s fault if the tenant can’t pay rent.”

He further warned landlords: “The law is not on your side.”

Shelton experienced this firsthand. 

“The law would prevent me from physically removing them,” he said. “However, being that I wasn’t the homeowner, I had more rights. As a tenant, I would actually have more rights than them.”

He added that if the squatters were still at the home and did not leave, he would have relied on his lease and tried to “make it miserable” for them so they would exit on their own. 

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Having solved his own squatters problem, Shelton is now helping others in a similar circumstance and calling to make squatting illegal. 

“I do zoom consultations. I ask people to make a donation to the cause. And when I can physically go out and help them, then yes, it is. It is something I am doing to help people now, as many as I personally possibly can,” he told host Stuart Varney.

“More importantly to that is I’m trying to change the laws. That’s my number one focus. So in helping others right now, since you know I feel bad, I can’t help everyone, but if we can change the squatter laws, I feel like that’s the way I can help everyone.”

FOX Business’ Kristen Altus contributed to this report.

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