DOJ sues Walgreens, alleging it ‘knowingly’ filled millions of prescriptions that lacked legitimate medical purposes – CNBC

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Mortgages for Small Down PaymentBest Mortgages for No Down PaymentBest Mortgages with No Origination FeeBest Mortgages for Average Credit ScoreAdjustable Rate MortgagesAffording a MortgageSELECTAll InsuranceBest Life InsuranceBest Homeowners InsuranceBest Renters InsuranceBest Car InsuranceTravel InsuranceSELECTAll Credit MonitoringBest Credit Monitoring ServicesBest Identity Theft ProtectionHow to Boost Your Credit ScoreCredit Repair ServicesSELECTAll Personal FinanceBest Budgeting AppsBest Expense Tracker AppsBest Money Transfer AppsBest Resale Apps and SitesBuy Now Pay Later (BNPL) AppsBest Debt ReliefSELECTAll Small BusinessBest Small Business Savings AccountsBest Small Business Checking AccountsBest Credit Cards for Small BusinessBest Small Business LoansBest Tax Software for Small BusinessSELECTAll TaxesFiling For FreeBest Tax SoftwareBest Tax Software for Small BusinessesTax RefundsTax BracketsTax TipsTax By StateTax Payment PlansSELECTAll Help for Low Credit ScoresBest Credit Cards for Bad CreditBest Personal Loans for Bad CreditBest Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad CreditPersonal Loans if You Don’t Have CreditBest Credit Cards for Building CreditPersonal Loans for 580 Credit Score or LowerPersonal Loans for 670 Credit Score or LowerBest Mortgages for Bad CreditBest Hardship LoansHow to Boost Your Credit ScoreSELECTAll InvestingBest IRA AccountsBest Roth IRA AccountsBest Investing AppsBest Free Stock Trading PlatformsBest Robo-AdvisorsIndex FundsMutual FundsETFsBondsIn this articleThe Department of Justice said Friday that it sued pharmacy giant Walgreens for allegedly dispensing millions of unlawful prescriptions.The DOJ said that Walgreens from August 2012 until the present “knowingly” filled those prescriptions, which “lacked a legitimate medical purpose, were not valid, and/or were not issued in the usual course of professional practice.” “This lawsuit seeks to hold Walgreens accountable for the many years that it failed to meet its obligations when dispensing dangerous opioids and other drugs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the DOJ’s Civil Division.Boynton said Walgreens pharmacists filled millions of prescriptions with “clear red flags that indicated the prescriptions were highly likely to be unlawful.”The company “systematically pressured its pharmacists to fill prescriptions, including controlled substance prescriptions, without taking the time needed to confirm their validity,” Boynton said. “These practices allowed millions of opioid pills and other controlled substances to flow illegally out of Walgreens stores.”Some Walgreens patients died of overdose deaths shortly after getting invalid prescriptions filled at Walgreens, the DOJ alleges.The 300-page lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.Walgreens in a statement said, “We are asking the court to clarify the responsibilities of pharmacies and pharmacists and to protect against the government’s attempt to enforce arbitrary ‘rules’ that do not appear in any law or regulation and never went through any official rulemaking process.””We will not stand by and allow the government to put our pharmacists in a no-win situation, trying to comply with ‘rules’ that simply do not exist,” Walgreens said.”Walgreens stands behind our pharmacists, dedicated healthcare professionals who live in the communities they serve, filling legitimate prescriptions for FDA-approved medications written by DEA-licensed prescribers in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”The suit alleges that although Walgreens issued written policies that reflected its understanding of legal obligations, the company took other actions which it knew prevented its pharmacists from complying with them.”Walgreens prioritized profits over safety and compliance by implementing policies and practices that required pharmacists to fill prescriptions quickly and left pharmacists without enough time or resources to exercise their corresponding responsibility,” the suit said.”One such metric was ‘Verify By Promise Time’ (VBPT), which expected a pharmacist to fill a prescription within 15 minutes for a ‘waiter’ (a customer waiting in the pharmacy store for the prescription),” the suit alleges.”Walgreens also tracked pharmacists that dispensed a low rate of controlled substances through its ‘Non-dispensing Pharmacist Report,'” the suit said.”Walgreens created this metric in part because it believed pharmacists who refused to fill controlled-substance prescriptions compromised Walgreens’s customer service.”Got a confidential news tip? 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Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/17/doj-sues-walgreens-prescriptions.html