Walgreens, a Deerfield-based company, has agreed to pay $106 million to resolve allegations made by the federal government that they submitted false Medicare and Medicaid claims.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Walgreen Co. agreed to pay $106.8 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act and state statutes for billing government health care programs for prescriptions never dispensed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Walgreens, headquartered in Deerfield, operates one of the largest retail pharmacy chains in the country.
The DOJ alleges that Walgreens submitted false claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs between 2009 and 2020 for prescriptions that it processed but were never picked up by beneficiaries.
Walgreens received tens of millions of dollars for prescriptions that it never actually provided to health care beneficiaries, the DOJ said.
Walgreens received credit under the department’s guidelines for taking disclosure, cooperation and remediation into account in False Claims Act cases as part of the negotiated resolution in the case.
The DOJ said Walgreens implemented enhancements to its electronic pharmacy management system to help prevent the situation from occurring in the future.
“Federal health care programs provide critical health care services to millions of Americans,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
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