Walgreens paying $106.8m to settle US billing fraud charges

NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Reuters): Walgreens Boots Alliance agreed to pay $106.8 million to settle charges it fraudulently billed the US government for prescriptions that were never dispensed, the Department of Justice said on Friday.

The Justice Department said Walgreens violated the federal False Claims Act between 2009 and 2020 by submitting payment claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other healthcare programs for prescriptions it processed but which were never picked up.

This caused the pharmacy chain to receive tens of millions of dollars for prescriptions it never provided to patients, the department said.