MA Pharmacy Agreed To Pay $10M In Opioid Settlement

Introduction

In a case where it was alleged that the pharmacy was selling risky medicine combinations, including opioids and disobeying prescriptions, an Andover-based drugstore agreed to pay $10 million.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Massachusetts, the Injured Workers Pharmacy (IWP), the nation's largest purchaser of opioids, has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the business violated the Controlled Substances Act by improperly filling prescriptions for controlled substances, including opioids, and submitting false claims for payment to the Department of Labour.

Prescriptions are mailed to wounded employees by the corporation. The CEO of the business said in a statement that federal investigators had incorrectly identified IWP as the top buyer of opioids among all pharmacies in the nation.

IWP sends medication to wounded employees throughout the nation, whereas retail pharmacies only dispense to patients in a limited geographic region. Hence, it is unfair to compare IWP to national retail pharmacy businesses. IWP only dispenses prescriptions that have been sent directly from prescribers or that have been confirmed with prescribers before being filled. The CEO stated in a statement that IWP's volume of opioid distribution is really less than 0.5 percent of that of Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy, respectively.

A five-year remedial action plan with the Drug Enforcement Administration was also required, according to a federal order given to IWP.

IWP acknowledged as part of the settlement that between 2014 and 2019, the business neglected to manage prescriptions with "red flags" including excessive opioid dosages, early refills, and risky medication combinations before distributing them to wounded employees, according to regulators.

"'Red flags' indicate prescriptions that may not have been issued for a legitimate medical purpose, such as abuse or diversion," according to a release from federal officials.

The complaint asserts that IWP failed to pay attention to prescriptions that the Department of Labour had noted. IWP acknowledged that from 2017 to 2019, the business informed the Department of Labor that staff members spoke with prescribers about prescriptions that were deemed to be worrisome. Actually, the prescribers weren't consulted by the corporation. IWP authorities said that staff submitted codes declaring "Prescriber consulted" without contacting IWP pharmacists or prescribers because they lacked clinical pharmacy knowledge and training.

Federal prosecutors claim that under the provisions of the settlement, DEA is permitted to examine IWP without an administrative inspection warrant during the course of the following five years.

IWP has subsequently improved its pharmacy practices "to address issues uncovered in the investigation," authorities stated. For instance, "the company established protocols to reduce losses of prescriptions shipped through the mail, developed additional procedures to review high-risk prescribing, increased training for all employees, eliminated production quotas for pharmacists and staff, implemented a drug diversion team to implement, establish, and maintain diversion controls throughout the pharmacy."

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