WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- Rite Aid Corp. will pay $5.6 million to the United States and $1.4 million to 27 states to settle a false prescription suit, the Justice Department said.
The department Friday said Rite Aid allegedly billed government health care programs -- Medicaid, Tricare Management Activity and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program -- for drugs that were never delivered to beneficiaries and were later returned to stock.
Besides the District of Columbia, the participating states to receive funds are Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The settlement covers Jan. 1, 1997 to Dec. 31, 2001.
About $1.1 million will go to whistleblowers Larry B. Friedman and Marion Tucker Altman Jr., who filed False Claims Act suits in Philadelphia and Columbia, S.C., respectively.
