Walgreens and the U.S. Department of Justice have agreed to a $300 million settlement to resolve allegations that, for more than a decade, the pharmacy chain illegally filled millions of invalid opioid prescriptions, then submitted false claims to federal healthcare programs to be paid for them.
The government in its complaint filed in January in federal court in Illinois, where Walgreens is based, alleged that from 2012 through 2023, the pharmacy chain filled illegal prescriptions that included “excessive” numbers of opioids, filled opioid prescriptions “significantly early” and filled prescriptions for “the especially dangerous and abused combination of three drugs known as a ‘trinity,'” the Department of Justice said in a news release Monday.
The prescriptions “raised significant concerns and were highly likely to be invalid” but were filled anyway, the DOJ alleged in the settlement agreement. The DOJ also alleged that the pharmacy chain also filled many prescriptions that were written by practitioners known to be regularly prescribing controlled substances unlawfully, according to the agreement.
Walgreens then allegedly submitted reimbursement claims to several different federal healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE, for prescriptions that were invalid or not medically necessary and were not eligible for reimbursement, according to the agreement.
The government also alleged that Walgreens “pressured” pharmacists to quickly fill prescriptions without taking time to confirm each one was lawful, the DOJ said in the news release Monday.
“Walgreens’s compliance officials also allegedly ignored substantial evidence that its stores were dispensing unlawful prescriptions and even intentionally deprived its own pharmacists of crucial information, including by refusing to share internal data regarding prescribers with pharmacists and preventing pharmacists from warning one another about certain problematic prescribers,” the news release said.
Walgreens denies the allegations.
In addition to the $300 million payment, Walgreens agreed to pay an additional $50 million if the company is sold, merged or transferred before 2032, the DOJ said. The pharmacy chain has also entered into agreements with the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies to ensure compliance measures in the future.
Attorneys from the Middle District of Florida were among those who represented the U.S. Middle District of Florida U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe said in the news release that the settlement is the largest under the Controlled Substances Act in the district’s history.
