Walgreens to Pay $106.8 Million in Settlement Over Prescription Billing Fraud

Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay $106.8 million to resolve allegations of fraudulent billing practices involving the U.S. government.

The Department of Justice announced on Friday that the pharmacy chain violated the False Claims Act between 2009 and 2020 by submitting payment claims for prescriptions that were never dispensed to patients. Ambrosia LaFluer / Wikimedia

The Justice Department alleges that Walgreens not only failed to reverse original payment claims for uncollected prescriptions but also resold the same medications to other customers. United States Department of Justice Vectorization: Ali Zifan / Wikimedia

This practice resulted in double payments, allowing the company to receive tens of millions of dollars for prescriptions it never actually provided. Harrison Keely / Wikimedia

While Walgreens has not admitted liability in the settlement, the company addressed the issue in a statement: "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. We corrected the error, reported the issue to the government and voluntarily refunded all overpayments." Walgreens / Wikimedia

The settlement resolves three whistleblower lawsuits filed in Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA / Pexels

The Justice Department acknowledged Walgreens' cooperation and efforts to upgrade its pharmacy management system to prevent future billing issues. ajay_suresh / Wikimedia

Of the total settlement amount, Walgreens has already refunded $66.3 million for the settled claims, according to Reuters.

Two whistleblowers, Steven Turck and Andrew Bustos, will receive $14.92 million and $1.62 million, respectively, from the settlement. SeichanGant / Wikimedia

This development comes as Walgreens recently announced plans to close a significant number of underperforming stores in the United States over the next few years. JJBers from Willimantic, Connecticut, USA / Wikimedia