Pharmaceutical services provider Omnicare agreed this week to pay $124 million to the Department of Justice to resolves allegations that it violated the False Claims Act.

According to the complaint, Omnicare submitted false claims by entering into below-cost contracts to supply prescription medication and other pharmaceutical drugs to skilled nursing facilities and their resident patients to induce the facilities to select Omnicare as their pharmacy provider. The facilities were participating providers under agreements with Medicare and Medicaid.  

Of the $124 million to be paid by Omnicare, $8.2 million will go to various states, which jointly funded the Medicaid programs impacted by Omnicare's conduct.

The settlement resolves a whistleblower complaint filed in 2010 by Donald Gale, a former Omnicare employee. Gale filed the lawsuit under the FCA's whistleblower provisions, which permit individuals who discover fraud to file claims on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery. Smith will receive $17.24 million for the tips he provided. 

As Compliance Week previously reported, Omnicare first announced the tentative $120 million settlement with the Department of Justice in a securities filing in 2013.

Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered a total of more than $19.5 billion through FCA cases, with more than $13.9 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.