Walgreens, a Deerfield-based company, has agreed to pay $300 million to resolve allegations made by the feds that the company illegally filled prescriptions for opioids and submitted false Medicare claims.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced the $300 million settlement with Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Walgreen Co. on Monday.
The settlement resolves allegations that Walgreens illegally filled millions of invalid prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Walgreens then sought payment for many of those invalid prescriptions from Medicare and other federal health care programs in violation of the False Claims Act.
Walgreens, headquartered in Deerfield, operates one of the largest retail pharmacy chains in the country.
Walgreens will owe the United States an additional $50 million if the company is sold, merged or transferred prior to fiscal year 2032.
According to the DOJ’s complaint, filed first in January and amended on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Walgreens knowingly filled millions of unlawful controlled substance prescriptions from approximately August 2012 through March 1, 2023.
The unlawful prescriptions included prescriptions for excessive quantities of opioids, opioid prescriptions filled significantly early and prescriptions for the “especially dangerous and abused” combination of three drugs known as a “trinity.”
Walgreens pharmacists were accused of filling the prescriptions despite “clear red flags” indicating a high likelihood that the prescriptions were invalid because they lacked a legitimate medical purpose or were not issued in the usual course of professional practice, the DOJ said.
The complaint further alleges that Walgreens pressured its pharmacists to fill prescriptions quickly and without taking the time needed to confirm that each prescription was lawful.
Walgreens’s compliance officials were accused of ignoring “substantial evidence” that its stores were dispensing unlawful prescriptions and even depriving its own pharmacists of important information, the DOJ said.
The compliance officials refused to share internal data regarding prescribers with pharmacists and prevented pharmacists from warning one another about certain problematic prescribers, the complaint said.
The DOJ has moved to dismiss its legal action against the company in light of the settlement.
Walgreens will also move to dismiss a related declaratory judgment action filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
“Pharmacies have a legal responsibility to prescribe controlled substances in a safe and professional manner, not dispense dangerous drugs just for profit,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said.
“This Department of Justice is committed to ending the opioid crisis and holding bad actors accountable for their failure to protect patients from addiction,” Bondi said.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Granston of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said the settlement resolves allegations that Walgreens failed for years to meet its obligations when dispensing dangerous opioids and other drugs.
“We will continue to hold accountable those entities and individuals whose actions contributed to the opioid crisis, whether through illegal prescribing, marketing, dispensing or distributing activities,” Granston said.
“Importantly, Walgreens’s agreements with the DEA and HHS-OIG provide swift relief in the form of monitoring and claims review that will improve Walgreens’s practices immediately,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros for the Northern District of Illinois said.
“Our office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that opioids are properly dispensed and that taxpayer funds are only spent on legitimate pharmacy claims,” Boutros said.
In addition to the monetary payments, Walgreens entered into agreements with the DEA and HHS-OIG to address its future obligations in dispensing controlled substances.
Walgreens and the DEA entered into a memorandum of agreement that requires the pharmacy chain to implement and maintain certain compliance measures for the next seven years.
Walgreens must maintain policies and procedures requiring pharmacists to confirm the validity of controlled substance prescriptions prior to dispensing controlled substances, provide annual training to pharmacy employees regarding their legal obligations relating to controlled substances, verify that pharmacy staffing is sufficient to enable pharmacy employees to comply with those legal obligations and maintain a system for blocking prescriptions from prescribers whom Walgreens becomes aware are writing illegitimate controlled substance prescriptions.