Sept 13 (Reuters) – Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA.O), opens new tab agreed to pay $106.8 million to settle fees it fraudulently billed the U.S. govt for prescriptions that have been by no means allotted, the Division of Justice mentioned on Friday.The Justice Division mentioned Walgreens violated the federal False Claims Act between 2009 and 2020 via filing fee claims to Medicare, Medicaid and different healthcare techniques for prescriptions it processed however that have been by no means picked up.This led to the drugstore chain to obtain tens of tens of millions of greenbacks for prescriptions it by no means supplied to sufferers, the dept mentioned.”Federal well being care techniques supply crucial well being care products and services to tens of millions of American citizens,” mentioned Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Division’s civil department. “We can grasp responsible those that abuse those techniques via knowingly billing for items or products and services they didn’t supply.”Walgreens, primarily based in Deerfield, Illinois, didn’t admit legal responsibility in agreeing to settle.”Because of a instrument error, we inadvertently billed some govt well being care techniques for a slightly small choice of prescriptions our sufferers submitted however by no means picked up,” Walgreens mentioned in a observation.”We corrected the mistake, reported the problem to the federal government and voluntarily refunded all overpayments.”Friday’s agreement resolves 3 whistleblower proceedings filed in Florida, New Mexico and Texas.The Justice Division mentioned the payout took into consideration Walgreens’ cooperation and its “important” steps to improve its in-house pharmacy control gadget to make certain that the billing issues do not occur once more.Walgreens up to now refunded $66.3 million for the settled claims and is being credited for this quantity.The chain lately operated about 8,600 retail outlets in america, however mentioned in June it plans to near a vital choice of underperforming retail outlets over the following couple of years.Steven Turck, a former Walgreens pharmacy supervisor who filed the Texas case, will obtain $14.92 million from the agreement. Andrew Bustos, a former Walgreens district pharmacy manager who filed the New Mexico case, will obtain $1.62 million.Walgreens Boots stocks closed on Friday up 37 cents, or 4.2%, at $9.21. Join right here.Reporting via Jonathan Stempel in New York; enhancing via Jonathan Oatis and David GregorioOur Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Consider Rules., opens new tabPurchase Licensing Rights
