A Pennsylvania judge has ordered CVS to pay $289 million in damages as part of a long-running whistleblower case.
The court ruled in whistleblower Sarah Behnke's favor in June following a bench trial, determining that CVS Caremark pushed insurers including Aetna, where she previously worked, to submit inflated pharmaceutical claims to the federal government dating back to 2010.
Behnke also alleged that Caremark paid pharmacies like Rite Aid and Walgreens less for medications. The lawsuit was first filed in 2014, before CVS Health acquired Aetna. That merger closed in 2018.
In June, Judge Mitchell Goldberg, of Pennsylvania's Eastern District Court, set the initial damages at $95 million. Now, he's entering a final judgment of $289.9 million, including $285 million in actual damages and $4.9 million in civil penalties.
The court found CVS liable for only two years of overbilling, but Goldberg said that the evidence presented during the trial made clear that the company's actions were "financially motivated," leading him to triple the initial damages.
In court documents, CVS argued that Behnke's claims were not fully proven, and that the initial $95 million penalty was substantial enough. However, Goldberg said that fraudulent claims to Medicare erode the public's faith in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
"CMS relies on companies like Caremark to truthfully and accurately report Part D drug prices," Goldberg said in Tuesday's order. "Caremark’s conduct broke...
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