WASHINGTON — Walgreens has agreed to pay $106 million to settle lawsuits that alleged the pharmacy chain submitted false fee claims with authorities well being care applications for prescriptions that had been by no means disbursed.
The settlement introduced on Friday resolves lawsuits filed in New Mexico, Texas and Florida on behalf of three individuals who had labored in Walgreens’ pharmacy operation. The lawsuits had been filed beneath a whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act that lets personal events file case on behalf of america authorities and share within the restoration of cash, the U.S. Justice Division stated. The pharmacy chain was accused of submitting false fee claims to Medicare, Medicaid and different federal well being care applications between 2009 and 2020 for prescriptions that had been processed however by no means picked up.
Settlement paperwork say Walgreens cooperated within the investigation and has improved its digital administration system to stop such issues from occurring once more.
In an announcement, Walgreens stated that due to a software program error, the chain inadvertently billed some authorities applications for a comparatively small variety of prescriptions that sufferers submitted however by no means picked up.
“We corrected the error, reported the difficulty to the federal government and voluntarily refunded all overpayments,” the assertion by Walgreens stated.
In reaching the settlement, the chain didn’t acknowledge authorized legal responsibility within the circumstances.
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