NEW YORK — A federal judge has ordered CVS Health's Omnicare unit to pay nearly $949M as part of a whistleblower lawsuit that accused the pharmacy of charging the federal government improperly for prescription drug claims.
On Monday evening U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan imposed a $542-million penalty for filing 3,342,032 false claims between 2010 and 2018. Another ~$407M was granted in damages. Those damages are triple the amount a jury awarded in late April, which is manadated under the False Claims Act.
"This lawsuit centered on a highly technical prescription dispensing record keeping issue that was allowed by law in many states," CVS said in a statement. "The dispensing practices referenced were limited to Omnicare, ended in 2018, were used by many others in the industry at the time, and were accepted by CMS. There was no claim in this case that any patient paid for a medication they shouldn’t have or that any patient was harmed."
"The decision on penalties is unconstitutional, especially given the fact that there is no evidence that a single patient suffered harm, and we plan to appeal once the judgment is entered," the company added.
CVS plans to appeal the judgment. The drugstore chain and pharmacy benefits manager bought Omnicare in 2015. Omnicare has asked McMahon to throw out the case or grant a new trial.
