NEW YORK, May 8 (UPI) -- Medco Health Solutions has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over the government's mail-order fraud charges.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the pharmacy benefit manager has agreed to take a pretax charge of $163 million to cover the settlement and related legal costs, but the agreement has not been finalized and "nonfinancial terms remain undetermined," the report said.
The suit was based on mail-order prescriptions sent to members of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, in which two former company employees alleged that Medco "canceled prescriptions, switched prescriptions without physician consent, did not fill prescriptions completely and failed to inform physicians about adverse medication interactions," the WSJ said.
Justice Department officials had also charged Medco paid illegal kickbacks to major clients in return for business.
The newspaper quoted Medco saying, "We have every expectation that the final agreement will include no admission of liability or wrongdoing."
According to the WSJ, Medco's settlement deal averts a "high-profile courtroom trial against the government in June."
