Recovery Amount: $97.8 Million
Qui Tam Relator Alleges Walgreens Billed the Government for Medication That Was Never Dispensed
Walgreens Co. will pay $97.8 million to state and federal governments to settle a qui tam case filed by a former pharmacist in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas. The case is captioned United States ex rel. Turck, et al. v. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., et al. (Case No. 4:19-cv-315).
According to the complaint, the relator worked at Walgreens for thirty-seven years and alleges that Walgreens billed third party payers for prescription drugs that were never dispensed or delivered to patients because of a problem with Walgreens proprietary pharmacy software, called Intercom Plus.
“Pharmacies that develop computer software to streamline the prescription filling process, must ensure that the software works properly in practice,” explains Dan Hergott, one of the relator’s attorneys and a partner at Behn & Wyetzner.
“Drugs that are not dispensed to patients should not be billed to government healthcare programs,” says Mr. Hergott. But the lawsuit contends that Walgreens’ computer software automatically archived prescriptions that were not picked up after a certain amount of time without reversing the charges to third party payers, “causing government payers to pay for false claims,” says Mr. Hergott.
Under the settlement, Walgreens agrees to pay $97.8 million to settle two cases involving allegations that Walgreens violated the False Claims Act. Walgreens denies the allegations and any wrongdoing.
The Department of Justice Press Release is available here.
For more information, contact Dan Hergott at dhergott@behnwyetzner.com.