Walgreens to pay $106.8M over claims it billed govt for prescriptions by no means distributed

Walgreens to pay 6.8M over claims it billed govt for prescriptions by no means distributed

Walgreens Boots Alliance has affirmative to pay a $106.8 million high-quality to govern allegations the drugstore chain billed federal condition aid methods for prescriptions that have been by no means crammed.

The Department of Justice introduced Friday an guarantee with Walgreens have been reached to get to the bottom of the federal government’s claims that the corporate violated the Fraudelant Claims Business and circumstance statutes.

Walgreens has affirmative to pay greater than $106 million to govern govt claims it billed federal condition aid businesses for prescriptions that have been by no means distributed. (Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)

The federal government alleges that, between 2009 and 2020, Walgreens despatched fake claims for fee to Medicare, Medicaid and alternative federal condition aid methods for prescriptions that have been processed at its pharmacies however that have been by no means picked up by way of the sufferers.

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In lieu of retreating the claims for the isolated medicine, Walgreens restocked and resold them to alternative consumers, receiving fee two times for the prescriptions. In keeping with the federal government, the drugstore chain accumulated tens of tens of millions in taxpayer bucks over the 11-year duration for medication that by no means made it to its supposed condition aid beneficiaries.

The DOJ claims that, over a decade, Walgreens billed federal condition aid businesses for tens of tens of millions of bucks for prescriptions that by no means made it to beneficiaries. (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Common Photographs Crew by way of Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)

“This settlement marks another major achievement in our ongoing commitment to combat health care fraud,” U.S. Lawyer Roger B. Handberg for the Center District of Florida mentioned in a observation saying the guarantee. “It is essential to hold pharmacies accountable when they knowingly fail to abide by the rules and requirements of our national health care programs.”

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As a part of the guarantee, Walgreens didn’t admit legal responsibility. 

“Due to a software error, we inadvertently billed some government health care programs for a relatively small number of prescriptions our patients submitted but never picked up,” a Walgreens spokesperson mentioned in a observation when reached by way of FOX Trade for remark. 

“We corrected the error, reported the issue to the government and voluntarily refunded all overpayments. We appreciate the government acknowledged our compliance efforts as part of resolving this matter.”

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WBAWALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE INC.9.21+0.37 +4.19%

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.

 

The DOJ mentioned that as a part of the solution, Walgreens did obtain credit score for taking quite a few movements to reveal, cooperate and medication the problems that resulted in the alleged Fraudelant Claims Business violations.

The federal government mentioned Walgreens has enhanced its digital pharmacy control device to block the issues from going down once more and self-reported some problems.

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Walgreens up to now refunded the federal government greater than $66 million in agreement claims, the federal government mentioned, and the corporate will obtain credit score for that quantity.

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