Walgreens agrees to $106.8M fine for fraudulent federal billing

Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Walgreens will pay $106.8 million to resolve alleged False Claims Act and state violations for billing federal health care programs for prescriptions that people did not pick up.

Officials for Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walgreen Co. dba Walgreens agreed to pay the fine to resolve federal claims against the retail pharmacy that is the nation's largest, the Justice Department announced in a news release Friday.

The DOJ says Walgreens submitted false claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs from 2009 to 2020 for prescriptions that the pharmacy processed but that patients never picked up.

"As a result, Walgreens received tens of millions of dollars for prescriptions that it never actually provided to healthcare beneficiaries," the DOJ said in a news release Friday.

Walgreens previously refunded $66.32 million and implemented changes to its electronic pharmacy management system to prevent future false billings.

"Millions of Americans rely on the promise of federal healthcare through programs like Medicare and Medicaid," U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez of New Mexico said. "Fraudulently billing for prescriptions which are never dispensed endangers the integrity of these critical programs."

The settlement ends three federal cases against Walgreens in New Mexico, Texas and Florida.

"Due to a software error, we inadvertently billed some government health care programs for a relatively small number of prescriptions our patients submitted but never picked up," a Walgreens spokesperson said in a statement to Fox Business .

"We corrected the error, reported the issue to the government and voluntarily refunded all overpayments. We appreciate the government acknowledged our compliance efforts as part of resolving this matter."

Former Walgreens pharmacy manager Steven Turck initiated a federal investigation by filing a qui tam lawsuit in Texas and will get $14.92 million.

Former Walgreens district pharmacy supervisor Andrew Bustos will get $1.62 million for initiating a federal investigation in New Mexico.