The Current State of Pharmacy Enforcement
This Feature Article is brought to you by AHLA's Fraud and Abuse Practice Group.
- April 25, 2025
- Jonathan A. Porter , Husch Blackwell LLP
On April 21, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice Department or DOJ) announced a $300 million settlement with Walgreens,[1] one of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains. The settlement resolves allegations that Walgreens violated the False Claims Act (FCA) for filling invalid prescriptions. Eleven days earlier, a federal judge in Texas granted summary judgment against a pharmacy and others relating to a financial arrangement with prescribers that the judge found violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS).[2] That judgment comes a few months after the Justice Department filed suit under the FCA against CVS,[3] another of the largest pharmacy chains in the United States, alleging CVS filled prescriptions that some within the company knew were unlawful, and months after U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced that opioids were one of her top enforcement priorities.[4]
ARTICLE TAGS
You must be logged in to access this content.