TOPEKA – (February 18, 2019) – Kansas has joined a nationwide legal settlement resolving allegations that Walgreens knowingly engaged in fraudulent over-dispensing of insulin pens to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced today.
The settlement resolves allegations that from January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2017, Walgreens repeatedly dispensed more insulin than had been prescribed to patients. The company was accused of then falsifying information on claims submitted for reimbursement to Medicare and Medicaid to obtain payment for the larger quantities.
Under the settlement, Walgreens will pay the United States and the States $209.2 million. Of this amount, $89.1 million will go to state Medicaid programs, which are jointly funded by the states and the federal government. The total recovered for Kansas will be $922,126.60, which will reimburse both federal and state funds spent by the Kansas Medicaid program as well as recover the cost of the investigation and enforcement action that led to the settlement.
This settlement arises from a whistleblower action originally filed in 2015 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under the federal False Claims Act and the named plaintiff states’ respective false claims statutes. A National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units team conducted the investigation and settlement negotiations in coordination with the Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Division in the attorney general’s office.