Walgreens is paying $106.8 million to settle allegations of US prescription billing fraud
The Justice Department said Walgreens violated the federal False Claims Act between 2009 and 2020 by submitting payment claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other health care programs that it processed but that were never picked up.
This resulted in the pharmacy chain receiving millions of dollars in prescriptions that were not dispensed to patients, the department said.
“Federal health care programs provide vital health care to millions of Americans,” said Brian Boynton, chief of the Justice Department's civil division. “We will hold accountable those who abuse these programs by billing for goods or services they did not knowingly provide.”
Walgreens, based in Deerfield, Illinois, has not admitted to agreeing to the settlement.
“Due to a software error, we inadvertently billed some government health care programs for a relatively small number of prescriptions that our patients submitted but never picked up,” Walgreens said in a statement.
“We have corrected the error, reported the issue to the government and voluntarily refunded all excess funds.”
Friday's settlement resolves three whistleblower lawsuits filed in Florida, New Mexico and Texas.
The Justice Department said the payout took into account Walgreens' cooperation and “significant” steps it took to upgrade its in-house pharmacy management system to ensure billing problems don't reoccur.
Walgreens has reimbursed $66.3 million for previously settled claims and is accruing for this amount.
The chain recently operated about 8,600 stores in the U.S., but said in June that it plans to close a significant number of underperforming stores over the next few years.
Steven Turk, a former Walgreens pharmacy manager who filed the Texas lawsuit, will receive $14.92 million from the settlement. Andrew Busts, the former Walgreens district pharmacy supervisor who filed the New Mexico lawsuit, will receive $1.62 million.
Walgreens Boots shares closed up 37 cents, or 4.2%, at $9.21 on Friday.
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Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Jonathan Otis and David Gregorio
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