Walgreens pays $106.8M to resolve False Claims Act allegations

Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay $106.8M to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act and state statutes for billing government health care programs for prescriptions never dispensed, the Department Justice said in a statement. The government alleges that, between 2009 and 2020, Walgreens submitted false claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs for prescriptions that it processed but that were never picked up by beneficiaries. As part of the resolution, Walgreens received credit under the department’s guidelines for taking disclosure, cooperation and remediation into account in False Claims Act cases. Among other actions, Walgreens implemented enhancements to its electronic pharmacy management system to prevent this from occurring in the future and self-reported certain conduct.