- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Jeff Dale2024-09-17T16:25:00
Walgreens agreed to pay nearly $107 million to resolve allegations, first brought by two whisteblowers, that it improperly billed federal healthcare programs for prescriptions that were never picked up or delivered.
Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walgreen Co. will pay nearly $92 million to federal healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and nearly $15 million to individual states, the DOJ announced in a press release last week. The agency acknowledged Walgreens received credit for its disclosure, cooperation, and remediation and that it refunded more than $66 million.
“This settlement marks another major achievement in our ongoing commitment to combat healthcare fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg for the Middle District of Florida in the release. “It is essential to hold pharmacies accountable when they knowingly fail to abide by the rules and requirements of our national health care programs.”
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Home health and hospice agency Intrepid USA agreed to pay $3.8 million to settle allegations, first brought by four whistleblowers, that its facilities billed Medicare for services patients were not qualified to receive, according to the Department of Justice.
Admera Health agreed to pay more than $5.5 million to resolve allegations first brought by two whistleblowers that it paid kickbacks to third-party contractors, the Department of Justice said.
Walgreens agreed to pay $7 million to settle alleged violations of the False Claims Act that it overbilled the state of Tennessee’s Medicaid insurance program for Hepatitis C medications and kept the proceeds even after it discovered an employee’s misconduct.
Gatekeepers including chief financial officers and the chair of the audit committee have a responsibility to shareholders to report fraud wherever they find it–especially when that fraud involves an artificial intelligence tool meant to combat fraud.
Fines for off-channel communications use by employees just keep on coming, with 12 municipal advisory firms fined a total of $1.3 million in the latest Securities and Exchange Commission sweep.
A Wells Fargo subsidiary will pay nearly $3 million to settle allegations that it failed to properly supervise an employee attempting to sell unsuitable investment products to retail investors–the fifth time it has been penalized for similar supervisory failings since 2020.
