Rite Aid agreed to pay at least $108 million to settle whistleblower lawsuits, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.CLEVELAND, Ohio — Rite Aid has agreed to pay at least $108 million to settle two whistleblower lawsuits, one over the opioid crisis and another over accusations it purposefully overbilled Medicare.Justice Department officials said the resolutions in the cases helped shield people from becoming addicted to opioids and held Rite Aid accountable for fraudulent billing.
“While we were successful in settling our claims against Rite Aid, we are disheartened by Rite Aid’s decision to file for bankruptcy as it will likely dilute the much-needed distribution of funds to those impacted by their actions,” Powers’ statement said. The settlements are separate from the some 1,600 lawsuits filed against the pharmacy chain by cities, states and others over its role in the crisis. The claims against Rite Aid remain ongoing. Similar cases against competitors Walmart, Walgreens and CVS ended with those three companies agreeing to settlements in the case that totaled some $13.8 billion.
It accused the pharmacy company of violating federal law by knowingly filling hundreds of thousands of dubious prescriptions from May 2014 to July 2019 and ignoring its own internal red flags to make millions of dollars in profit. The lawsuit accused Rite Aid and its subsidiaries of purposefully failing to accurately report to Medicare rebates it received from drug manufacturers from 2014 to 2020.