CVS fined $3.5M to resolve fake prescription allegations

CVS Pharmacy Inc. has agreed to pay $3.5 million to resolve allegations that 50 of its stores violated the Controlled Substances Act by filling forged prescriptions for controlled substances – mostly addictive painkillers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
CVS Pharmacy Inc. has agreed to pay $3.5 million to resolve allegations that 50 of its stores violated the Controlled Substances Act by filling forged prescriptions for controlled substances – mostly addictive painkillers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

(Updated 3:17 p.m.)
BOSTON – CVS Pharmacy Inc. will pay $3.5 million to settle allegations that 50 of its Massachusetts stores violated the Controlled Substances Act by filling forged prescriptions for addictive painkillers and other controlled substances more than 500 times between 2011 and 2014.
Woonsocket-based CVS also has entered into a three-year compliance agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration that requires CVS to maintain and enhance programs it developed for detecting and preventing diversion of controlled substances, according to U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.
“Pharmacies have a legal responsibility to ensure that controlled substances are dispensed only pursuant to valid prescriptions,” Ortiz said in a statement. “When pharmacies ignore red flags that a prescription is fraudulent, they miss a critical opportunity to prevent prescription drugs from entering the stream of illegal opiates on the black market. Diverted painkillers are contributing to the devastating opioid epidemic in our commonwealth. Although CVS is currently undertaking corrective steps to curb the tide of diversion, this settlement pushes CVS to go further and holds the company accountable for its past conduct.”

CVS spokesman Michael J. DeAngelis said that the company entered into an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and the Drug Enforcement Administration to resolve the allegations “to avoid the unnecessary expense, inconvenience or uncertainty of further legal proceedings.”
“Since the covered time period, we have implemented enhanced policies, procedures and tools to help our pharmacists properly exercise their corresponding responsibility to determine whether a controlled substance prescription was issued for a legitimate medical purpose before filling it,” he wrote in an email.

The Drug Enforcement Administration initiated two investigations of CVS stores after it received increased reports of forged oxycodone prescriptions.
The first investigation revealed that forged prescriptions were filled 403 times at 40 CVS stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In the second investigation, the DEA identified 120 forged prescriptions filled at 10 CVS stores in and around Boston.
The street value of the diverted pills was estimated at more than $1 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice press release.
The release said that the forged prescriptions traced back to just a few individuals. One forger, known as P.R., signed a dentist’s name on 56 of 59 oxycodone prescriptions that P.R. was then able to get filled at five CVS locations.
CVS pharmacists filled the prescriptions even though CVS banned P.R. five years ago and its computer system contained notes warning that P.R. had tried to fill forged prescriptions previously.
P.R. opened a new patient profile using her own Arizona driver’s license number but with a different last name, to avoid the ban.
The release said CVS should have been aware of the change and said the amount and frequency of her oxycodone prescriptions “were excessive, especially coming from a dentist.”
Another forger, E.M., signed a dentist’s name on 131 prescriptions for hydrocodone then had them filled at eight CVS stores. One store, in South Dennis, Mass., filled 29 forged prescriptions for E.M. in six months. Those 29 prescriptions totaled 1,290 pills of hydrocodone, or seven pills a day.
CVS also filled 107 prescriptions that bore the dentist’s Massachusetts address, even though that dentist moved to Maine.
“CVS pharmacists could have discovered that the address on these prescriptions was no longer valid had they called the phone number on the prescriptions or checked the DEA’s website,” the release said.
Another forger, E.D., filled fake prescriptions for hydrocodone and methadone more than 200 times at CVS stores.
“Under DEA regulations, pharmacists dispensing the drugs have a responsibility to ensure that he/she is filling only valid prescriptions written for a legitimate medical purpose by a practitioner acting in the usual course of his/her professional practice,” the release said.
Last August, CVS Health Corp. agreed to pay $450,000 to resolve allegations that several of its Rhode Island stores violated the federal Controlled Substances Act by filling invalid prescriptions and maintaining deficient records.

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