Walgreens to Pay $106.8M To Resolve Allegations It Billed The Government For Prescriptions Never Dispensed
Crime
Walgreens, headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, operates one of the largest retail pharmacy chains in the country.
The government alleges that, between 2009 and 2020, Walgreens submitted false claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs for prescriptions that it processed but that were never picked up by beneficiaries. As a result, Walgreens received tens of millions of dollars for prescriptions that it never actually provided to health care beneficiaries.
As part of the resolution, Walgreens received credit under the department’s guidelines for taking disclosure, cooperation and remediation into account in False Claims Act cases. Among other actions, Walgreens implemented enhancements to its electronic pharmacy management system to prevent this from occurring in the future and self-reported certain conduct. Because Walgreens previously refunded $66,314,790 pertaining to the settled claims, Walgreens will receive a credit for this amount.
The federal share of the recovery is $91,881,530, and a total of $14,933,259 will be returned to individual states, which jointly fund state Medicaid programs, through separate settlement agreements with the Medicaid participating states.
The federal government’s settlement with Walgreens resolves three cases pending in the District of New Mexico, Eastern District of Texas and Middle District of Florida under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provision of the False Claims Act, which permits private parties to file suit for false claims on behalf of the United States and to share in any recovery. Steven Turck, a former Walgreens pharmacy manager, filed the qui tam suit in the Eastern District of Texas related to billing Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs, and will receive $14,918,675. Andrew Bustos, a former Walgreens district pharmacy supervisor, filed the qui tam suit in the District of New Mexico related to billing Medicare Part B and will receive $1,620,000.
Trial Attorney Seth Greene of the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ruth Keegan and Sean Cunniff and Auditor Julie Chappell for the District of New Mexico; Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Gillingham and Adrian Garcia for the Eastern District of Texas; and Senior Litigation Counsel Lindsay Griffin for the Middle District of Florida handled the matters. HHS-OIG and the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units assisted in the investigations.
The investigation and resolution of these matters illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating healthcare fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement can be reported to HHS at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).
The civil settlements with Walgreens resolved the following captioned cases: United States ex rel. Bustos v. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., et al., No. 1:15-cv-781 (DNM); United States ex rel. Turck, et al. v. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., et al., No. 4:19-cv-315 (EDTX); and United States, et al. ex rel. Jacob v. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., No. 8:20-cv-858-T-60TGW (MDFL).
*This release has been updated to remove an allegation that is not in the settlement agreement.