WALGREEN’S CAUGHT IN FRAUD BILLINGS to MEDICARE PAYS $7.9 MILLION FOR WHISTLEBLOWER CASE

Walgreen’s whistleblowers Cassie Bass, a pharmacy technician for Walgreen and Jack Chin and independent pharmacist will receive $1.3 million for reporting a Walgreen scheme involving illegal inducements to beneficiaries of government healthcare programs. The company’s advertisements that promoted gift cards and gift checks for transferred prescriptions typically acknowledged that the offer was not valid with Medicaid, Medicare or other government programs, but the government alleged that Walgreen employees frequently ignored the coupons’ exemptions, in violation of federal law. Walgreen’s agreed to pay $7.9 million to resolve the false prescription billing claims today