DOJ, DEA Reach $50 Million Opioid Settlement with Walmart
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced a settlement with Walmart over a long-running case involving alleged illegal opioid prescriptions.
Under the terms of the agreement, Walmart will pay $50 million to resolve allegations that it filled unlawful opioid prescriptions and prescriptions for other controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) at its pharmacies.
“This $50 million settlement makes clear that pharmacies have a responsibility to identify and prevent the unlawful dispensing of controlled substances,” said DEA Assistant Administrator Cheri Oz.
The alleged violations started in June 2013. The government filed its initial case in the District of Delaware in 2020 and amended it in 2022.
“Pill Mills”
According to the complaint, members of Walmart’s team and some of its pharmacists knew that certain prescribers were operating as “pill mills” but filled invalid prescriptions written by those prescribers anyway.
The compliance team was alerted through thousands of “refusal-to-fill” forms. But as one director noted in an email, the compliance team viewed “[d]riving sales and patient awareness,” as “a far better use of our Market Directors and Market manager’s time.”
Some Walmart pharmacists also allegedly filled prescriptions despite red flags, including prescriptions from known “pill mill” prescribers, prescriptions that were for “cocktails” of opioids and non-opioids, and excessively repeated fills of high dosages of often-abused opioids.
“This settlement is another important step in addressing the opioid crisis and ensuring that, when pharmacists and pharmacies see red flags, they meet their obligations under the Controlled Substances Act to stem the tide of dangerous prescriptions,” said U.S. Attorney Benjamin L. Wallace for the District of Delaware.
Besides the $50 million fine, Walmart entered into a memorandum of agreement with the DEA.
Under the agreement, Walmart must establish a hotline for employees and patients to report suspected illegal dispensing of controlled substances, proactively monitor the dispensing patterns of its pharmacies to identify and address potentially illegal dispensing, and establish a process to evaluate prescribers suspected of illegal prescribing.
In 2022, Walmart agreed to pay $3.1 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits by state and local governments over its pharmacies’ role in the opioid crisis.
