NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – One of the biggest pharmacies in the country will have to fork over millions of dollars after settling a lawsuit involving three different states – one of those being New Mexico.
Walgreens has agreed to settle that lawsuit for a whopping $106 million. The suit claims the company billed the government for medicine that was never given to patients.
“Walgreens was billing the taxpayers via Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs, for those prescriptions, which essentially went back on the shelves for them to sell to somebody else,” said United States New Mexico District Attorney Alexander Uballez.
By doing this, the settlement claims that Walgreens received tens of millions of dollars for prescriptions never given to customers. The lawsuit was brought forward by a whistle-blower back in 2015, but the suit alleges the activity had been going on all the way back to 2009.
“When we evaluated it, we decided to intervene and join in this, conduct an investigation, and participate in the settlement,” Uballez said.
However, according to the settlement, Walgreens cooperated with authorities during the lawsuit and had previously paid back more than $66 million which will be credited toward the total amount Walgreens has to pay. About $99 million of the total amount owed will go to the federal government, and another $14 million will go back to the impacted states.
Moving forward, Walgreens will be responsible for building a new pharmacy management system to prevent this in the future.
“Every corporation has a responsibility to make sure that the way in which they’re billing the federal government. In the same way, they have a responsibility to make sure the way they bill private citizens is correct,” Uballez explained.
The other states involved in the lawsuit were Texas and Florida. By agreeing to the settlement, Walgreens is not admitting any wrongdoing or guilt.
“It’s a good win,” Uballez added. “We like to restore the taxpayer’s money. We like to make sure that our companies are self-policing, that they have systems in place that don’t allow for overpricing of things or fraudulent pricing of things to occur.”