In order to resolve charges alleging the pharmacy company filed fraudulent payment claims with government health care programs for prescriptions that were never filled, Walgreens has agreed to pay $106 million.
Three former employees of Walgreens’ pharmacy business filed cases in New Mexico, Texas, and Florida, which were settled on Friday. According to the U.S. Justice Department, the claims were brought under the False Claims Act’s whistleblower clause, which permits private individuals to bring legal action on behalf of the federal government and get a portion of any money recovered.
Between 2009 and 2020, the pharmacy chain was charged with filing fraudulent claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs for prescriptions that were filled but never picked up.
According to settlement documents, Walgreens enhanced its electronic management system to stop similar issues from happening in the future and assisted with the inquiry.
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Walgreens released a statement claiming that due to a software glitch, the firm unintentionally filed claims to certain government programs for a comparatively small number of prescriptions that patients filled but never picked up.
“We corrected the error, reported the issue to the government and voluntarily refunded all overpayments,” according to Walgreens’s statement.
The business did not recognize legal fault in the instances in negotiating the settlement. The lawsuits were brought by private parties, not the US Justice Department, as was originally reported.
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