Walmart has agreed to pay $50 million to resolve allegations that its pharmacies illegally filled thousands of invalid prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances, the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration announced.
Federal officials alleged Walmart violated the Controlled Substances Act through the actions of members of its compliance team and pharmacists.
“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 was initially filed in December 2020 and amended in 2022 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
According to the Justice Department, the government alleged that beginning in June 2013, Walmart filled invalid prescriptions through the knowing actions of members of its compliance team and pharmacists.
The government alleged members of Walmart’s compliance team knew certain prescribers were operating as “pill mills” but allowed invalid prescriptions written by those prescribers to be filled anyway.
Federal officials said Walmart pharmacists had reported the conduct to the company’s corporate compliance team through thousands of “refusal-to-fill” forms.
The government alleged the compliance team prioritized other goals over compliance with the Controlled Substances Act. According to the complaint, one compliance team director wrote in an email that instead of analyzing refusal-to-fill reports, “[d]riving sales and patient awareness,” was “a far better use of our Market Directors and Market manger’s time.”
Walmart pharmacists also allegedly filled prescriptions they knew were invalid, according to the Justice Department.
Federal officials said some prescriptions were allegedly written by known “pill mill” prescribers or contained warning signs, including dangerous combinations of opioids, combinations of opioids and non-opioids, repeated fills of high doses of commonly abused opioids or repeated requests for early fills of controlled substances.
“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. “Filling illegitimate opioid prescriptions puts patients and communities at risk and undermines the safeguards designed to prevent the diversion and misuse of potentially addictive medications. This settlement addresses past conduct while establishing clear compliance obligations designed to strengthen safeguards and help prevent these failures from happening again.”
In addition to the $50 million payment, Walmart entered into an agreement with the DEA establishing requirements for the company’s future dispensing of controlled substances.
Under the agreement, Walmart must establish a hotline for employees and patients to report suspected illegal dispensing of controlled substances. The company must also proactively monitor dispensing patterns at its pharmacies to identify and address potentially illegal activity and establish a process to evaluate prescribers suspected of illegal prescribing.
The Justice Department said the claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.
