The U.S. Department of Justice is intervening in the prosecution of the case against the retail pharmacy for violations of the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act.
WASHINGTON, January 13, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, the nationally recognized law firm of Baron & Budd announced the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to intervene and take primary responsibility litigating a whistleblower lawsuit filed against Rite Aid for violations of the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act. The whistleblowers in this case are former Rite Aid pharmacy employees represented by Baron & Budd.
The lawsuit alleges the company knowingly dispensed controlled substances outside the usual course of the professional practice of pharmacy and without a legitimate medical purpose and billed government healthcare programs for the fraudulently dispensed prescriptions.
The whistleblowers allege that "Rite Aid formally and informally incentivized and pressured its pharmacists to fill all prescriptions presented at its pharmacies – regardless of validity – resulting in prescriptions that were clearly not medically necessary being filled and billed to Government Programs, the public health and public fisc be damned." The lawsuit alleges that taxpayer-funded health care programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare, only cover the costs of valid prescriptions issued for legitimate medical purposes, but these programs have paid out billions of dollars for medically...
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