Walmart, Sam’s Club Fined $825,000 for Auto Refills
On May 29, 2018 Walmart Stores, Inc. and Sam’s West, Inc. (Sam’s Club) reached an agreement to settle allegations that their pharmacies in Minnesota submitted claims to Medicaid that violated requirements surrounding auto-refills.
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In Minnesota and many other states, pharmacies are not permitted to auto-refill prescriptions for Medicaid patients. The patient must initiate refills by making a request to the pharmacy. Charges were filed against Walmart and Sam’s by whistleblower Ryan Mesaros under the False Claim Act alleging the pharmacies enrolled Medicaid patients into their auto-refill programs and billed Medicaid for those prescriptions. The government joined the whistleblower action to prosecute the case.
In the settlement Walmart and Sam’s agreed to pay $825,000 to resolve federal and Minnesota False Claims Acts violations.
