Walgreens to pay $106 million to resolve allegations it submitted false claims to Medicaid and other programs

Washington. Walgreens It agreed to pay $106 million to settle lawsuits alleging that the pharmacy chain submitted false payment claims to government health programs for prescriptions that were never filled.

The settlement was announced Friday to resolve lawsuits filed in New Mexico, Texas and Florida on behalf of three people who worked in Walgreens' pharmacy operations. The lawsuits were filed under a provision of the False Claims Act, which allows individuals to file lawsuits on behalf of the U.S. government and participate in recovering money, the Justice Department said. The drugstore chain was accused of submitting false payment claims to medical care, medical aid and other federal health care programs between 2009 and 2020 for prescriptions that were processed but never collected.

Settlement documents say Walgreens cooperated with the investigation and improved its electronic management system to prevent these issues from happening again.

Walgreens said in a statement that due to a software error, the chain inadvertently billed some government programs for a relatively small number of prescriptions that patients filled but never received.

“We corrected the error, reported the issue to the government, and voluntarily returned all overpayments,” Walgreens said in a statement.

When the agreement was reached, the chain did not admit legal liability in these cases.