Walmart Inc. has agreed to pay $50 million to resolve federal allegations that its pharmacies illegally filled thousands of invalid prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances, the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration announced.
“Today’s settlement proves this Department is committed to putting Americans’ flourishing first,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “Congress enacted laws to promote responsibility and accountability for companies who dispense controlled substances to protect Americans. This Department will never shy away from vigorously enforcing pharmacies’ obligations to comply with those protections, ensuring that potential profits never justify aiding our Nation’s opioid epidemic.”
The government’s complaint, filed Dec. 22, 2020, and amended in 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleged that Walmart had filled invalid prescriptions dating back to June 2013 through the knowing actions of both its corporate compliance team and its pharmacists.
According to the complaint, members of Walmart’s compliance team were aware that certain prescribers were operating as “pill mills” but continued to fill invalid prescriptions those prescribers wrote. The government alleged the compliance team learned of the prescribers’ conduct through its own pharmacists, who submitted thousands of “refusal-to-fill” forms flagging concerns. Rather than acting on those reports, the complaint alleges, the compliance team prioritized other business goals. One compliance team director wrote in an email that “driving sales and patient awareness” was “a far better use of our Market Directors and Market manager’s time” than analyzing the refusal-to-fill reports, according to the government.
The complaint also alleged that individual Walmart pharmacists filled prescriptions they knew to be invalid, either because they came from known pill-mill prescribers or because they carried red flags such as dangerous drug combinations, opioid “cocktails” mixed with non-opioids, repeated fills of high-dosage opioids prone to abuse, or repeated requests for early refills of controlled substances.
Beyond the monetary payment, Walmart has entered into a memorandum of agreement with the DEA governing its future handling of controlled substances. Under the agreement, Walmart must establish a hotline for employees and patients to report suspected illegal dispensing, proactively monitor dispensing patterns across its pharmacies to flag potential violations, and create a process for evaluating prescribers suspected of illegal prescribing.
The government was represented by trial attorneys from the Justice Department’s Civil Division Enforcement & Affirmative Litigation Branch, along with assistant U.S. attorneys from the District of Delaware, the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Middle District of Florida and the Eastern District of New York.