Walgreens paying $209M settlement for Not Opening Insulin Pen Boxes

[297point1]

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Is it a bad thing that it took me forever to even find out that PAAS stands for pharmacy audit assistance service?

I thought it was the company that makes the easter egg coloring kits.

 

[Wickett]

Perfect timing, now that we finally got our patients and the local prescribers to get used to us breaking the boxes.

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

I believed every other insurance audits have never depute over un-open box of insulin unless the day supply was completely wrong.
I feel like this have been the case for a long time. Why now?

Good question. PBMs have been abusing the $h!t out of pharmacies for year. Why is retribution happening now? haha Arkansas is about to be paid in April.

U.S. Supreme Court schedules oral arguments in Arkansas PBM case

It’s been known for a month that the U.S. Supreme Court would hear a major case regarding pharmacy benefit managers.

www.5newsonline.com

 

[Concerned Parent]

Looks like this should clear up any confusion.. lol

Walgreens to pay $269 million on claims it overcharged federal programs
Wall Street Journal (01/23/19) Thomas, Patrick

Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay more than $269 million to settle federal and state lawsuits that accused it of overbilling federal health care programs. Two separate settlements involving Walgreens were unsealed Tuesday in which the company accepted responsibility for conduct the government alleged in complaints under the False Claims Act. The settlements were approved last week by U.S. District Court judges in Manhattan. In the first settlement, Walgreens agreed to pay $209.2 million to the U.S. and several state governments for improperly billing Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs for hundreds of thousands of insulin pens it dispensed to program beneficiaries who did not need them. Federal prosecutors said Walgreens configured its electronic pharmacy management system to prevent its pharmacists from dispensing less than a full box of five insulin pens, even when patients did not need that much. In the second settlement, Walgreens agreed to pay $60 million to settle claims that it overbilled Medicaid by failing to disclose and charge the lower drug prices it offered the public through a discount program. "Walgreens is pleased to have resolved these matters with the Department of Justice," the company said in a statement, adding it cooperated with the government's investigation and has admitted no wrongdoing.

In order to save a few dollars per month, these insurance companies are putting diabetics at risk. If the pens were meant to be distributed individually, they would be packaged that way with an individual insert. Opening the sealed box of 5 leaves the product open to the possibility of med errors (many of these pens look very similar), tampering, and contamination. If they want to require dispensing the pens individually, they need to be packaged that way. Tylenol requires a safety seal, but an injectable medication doesn’t?