Walgreens Paying $106.8 Million to Settle Prescription Billing Fraud Expenses – Cyber Tech

Walgreens Boots Alliance agreed to pay $106.8 million to settle prices it fraudulently billed the U.S. authorities for prescriptions that have been by no means disbursed, the Division of Justice mentioned on Friday.

The Justice Division mentioned Walgreens violated the federal False Claims Act between 2009 and 2020 by submitting cost claims to Medicare, Medicaid and different healthcare packages for prescriptions it processed however which have been by no means picked up.

This brought about the pharmacy chain to obtain tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} for prescriptions it by no means offered to sufferers, the division mentioned.

“Federal well being care packages present vital well being care providers to thousands and thousands of Individuals,” mentioned Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Division’s civil division. “We’ll maintain accountable those that abuse these packages by knowingly billing for items or providers they didn’t present.”

Walgreens, primarily based in Deerfield, Illinois, didn’t admit legal responsibility in agreeing to settle.

“On account of a software program error, we inadvertently billed some authorities well being care packages for a comparatively small variety of prescriptions our sufferers submitted however by no means picked up,” Walgreens mentioned in an announcement.

“We corrected the error, reported the problem to the federal government and voluntarily refunded all overpayments.”

Friday’s settlement resolves three whistleblower lawsuits filed in Florida, New Mexico and Texas.

The Justice Division mentioned the payout took into consideration Walgreens’ cooperation and its “vital” steps to improve its in-house pharmacy administration system to make sure that the billing issues don’t occur once more.

Walgreens beforehand refunded $66.3 million for the settled claims and is being credited for this quantity.

The chain just lately operated about 8,600 shops in the US, however mentioned in June it plans to shut a big variety of underperforming shops over the following few years.

Steven Turck, a former Walgreens pharmacy supervisor who filed the Texas case, will obtain $14.92 million from the settlement. Andrew Bustos, a former Walgreens district pharmacy supervisor who filed the New Mexico case, will obtain $1.62 million.

Walgreens Boots shares closed on Friday up 37 cents, or 4.2%, at $9.21.

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