WASHINGTON, D.C. – Walgreens and other pharmacies in the USA Drug Chain have agreed to pay $16 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit stemming from alleged overbilling of government health programs.
According to a news release issued by the law firms of Vogel, Slade & Goldstein and Susman Godfrey, Walgreens, Stephen L. LaFrance Holdings Co. and several companies that were part of USA Drug, a regional pharmacy chain acquired by Walgreens, agreed to pay the settlement to the United States, Oklahoma and Tennessee to resolve the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleged that defendants knowingly overbilled Medicare Part D, Medicaid and other government health programs millions of dollars by unlawfully charging more for generic drugs than customary prices.
Government health programs require pharmacies to bill programs no more for drugs than their “usual and customary charges” to uninsured individuals. The whistleblower lawsuit was brought by the firms’ client, James D. Strauser, a pharmacist who worked at USA Drug, who alleged that, beginning in approximately 2008, the USA Drug chain began selling many commonly prescribed generic drugs to uninsured customers at the same prices charged by competitors. At the same time, however, USA Drug unlawfully charged Medicare and Medicaid much higher prices for the same drugs, the firms said in the release. For example, the lawsuit alleged that for certain generic medications such as the anti-depressant Fluoxetine, the USA Drug chain charged...
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