Wallgreens pays $35M to settle Rx fraud case

The US Justice Department says Walgreens, the USA's largest pharmacy chain, has agreed to pay $35.0 million to settle claims that, from 2001 to 2005, it improperly switched patients to different versions of the prescriptions drugs ranitidine, fluoxetine and eldepryl in order to increase its reimbursement from Medicaid.

Walgreens will pay that amount to resolve a False Claims Act qui tam action filed in 2003 by Bernard Lisitza, a licensed pharmacist. The federal share of the settlement is around $18.6 million. 46 states and Puerto Rico will share about $16.4 million under separate deals. Mr Lisitza will get $5.0 million as his share of the federal and state settlements. The pharmacy group has also entered into a compliance accord with the Department of Health and Human Services, effective for five years, to insure that it does not improperly switch drugs in the future.