Walgreens to Pay $269 Million to Settle Claims It Overcharged Federal Health Programs
January 22 2019 - 7:27PM
Dow Jones News
By Patrick Thomas
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. has agreed to pay more than $269
million to settle federal and state lawsuits that accused it of
overbilling federal health-care programs.
U.S. District Court judges in Manhattan approved two separate
settlements involving Walgreens last week, but those settlements
were unsealed Tuesday, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
U.S. officials said the company accepted responsibility for conduct
the government alleged in its complaints under the False Claims
Act.
In the first settlement, Walgreens agreed to pay $209.2 million
to the U.S. and other state governments for improperly billing
Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health-care programs for
hundreds of thousands of insulin pens it dispensed to program
beneficiaries who didn't need them, according to U.S.
officials.
Federal prosecutors said Walgreens configured its electronic
pharmacy management system to prevent its pharmacists from
dispensing less than a full box of five insulin pens, even when
patients didn't need that much.
When a full box of insulin pens exceeded the federal health-care
program's limit for the daily doses that could be reimbursed,
Walgreens stated in its reimbursement claims to the government that
the total days of supply didn't go over the limit, according to
prosecutors.
In the second settlement, Walgreens agreed to pay about $60
million to settle claims that it overbilled Medicaid by failing to
disclose and charge the lower drug prices it offered the public
through a discount program.
Walgreens operates a program, the Prescription Savings Club,
that provides customers discounts on brand-name and generic drugs.
However, federal prosecutors said Walgreens didn't disclose the
discounted drug price when filing for reimbursement from
Medicaid.
"Walgreens is pleased to have resolved these matters with the
Department of Justice," the company said in a statement, adding it
cooperated with the government's investigation and has admitted no
wrongdoing.
Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 22, 2019 19:12 ET (00:12 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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