(The Center Square) – A lawsuit between California and neighborhood pharmacy company CVS has been settled for $18.2 million, state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced.
According to a news release issued Monday by Bonta’s office, Rhode Island-based CVS Pharmacy Inc. will pay the fine and restitution. The state and the U.S. Department of Justice alleged CVS submitted false pharmacy claims to Medicaid that resulted in millions of dollars being wrongly paid for CVS patients’ medications.
Pharmacies like CVS can submit reimbursement claims to Medicaid when they dispense prescription medications to patients, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of California.
Medicaid is known by Medi-Cal in California. Neither the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services nor the state’s Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal, responded to The Center Square’s requests for comment on Tuesday. Medi-Cal is funded by both federal and state money, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Today’s settlement holds CVS accountable for its fraudulent drug dispensing and billing practices,” Bonta said. “Pharmacies have an important responsibility to ensure all claims they submit to Medi-Cal are verified, true, accurate, and well documented. These practices ensure safe and cost-effective prescription drug use and are essential in ensuring Medi-Cal funds go to people who actually need them.”
The lawsuit says CVS ran afoul of The...
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