Walgreens Pill-Flipping Scheme Costs Taxpayers Millions

Walgreens Pill-Flipping Scheme Costs Taxpayers Millions

Thanks to an anonymous whistle-blower, a Walgreens pill-flipping scheme has been blown wide open, according to CBS. "Pill-flipping" refers the practice of pharmacies that purposefully switch Medicaid patients to more expensive versions of certain drugs for the sole reason of collecting more money from the government. Naturally, when this happens, taxpayers pick up the bill. Athough, Walgreen's officially denies any wrongdoing they have agreed to pay the government more than $35 million. Details, inside...

CBS explains the scheme,

To save taxpayer dollars, Medicaid limits how much it pays for popular forms of drugs. But it doesn't bother to set price-ceilings on rarely-used versions.

Take generic Zantac, or ranitidine, for example. The antacid is a huge seller in tablet form. Medicaid limits payment to 34 cents apiece.

The same drug as capsules has no price-ceiling because it was so rarely-prescribed. Medicaid pays $1.25 each. Walgreens figured it could pocket millions by switching patients from tablets to capsules.
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And they're not the only ones. CVS and Omnicare quietly settled similar cases coughing up $86 million more. The whole pill-flipping episode proves just how imperfect some drugstore chains can be. ...