The Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay $269.2 million to settle two separate whistleblower lawsuits accusing it of civil fraud for overbilling federal healthcare programs for over ten years.
Insulin Settlement
In the first suit, the chain will pay $209.2 million to resolve claims it improperly billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs from 2006 through 2017 for hundreds of thousands of insulin pens dispensed to patients known not to need them.
According to the settlement, Walgreens programmed its computer system to define a full box of five insulin pens as the minimum dispensing package size. This definition prevented Walgreens pharmacists from being able to dispense fewer than five pens even though a patient’s prescription called for fewer pens than a box of five.
Source: Walgreens to Pay $269.2 To Settle Civil Fraud Lawsuits / Policy and Medicine