On June 4, 2008, Walgreen’s drug store agreed to pay $35 million to settle a Medicare whistleblower lawsuit. In the suit, retail giant Walgreen’s was accused of substituting more expensive versions of three prescription drugs between 2001 and 2005 in an attempt to defraud the medicare system.
Pharmacist Bernard Listiza was credited for blowing the whistle on the fraud scheme and will receive $5 million as a reward for his cooperation. This same pharmacist brought a similar suit against CVS Caremark Corporation in late 2006.
In addition, individual states such as Indiana and Ohio have accused the pharmacy of making wholesale switches without physician involvement, which is a violation of numerous state regulations on pharmaceutical drugs. The two states listed above recovered $161,000 and $28, 479 respectively from the Medicare settlement
Related Whistleblower and Medicaid Fraud Information: