Walgreens has agreed to pay more than $269 million to settle two separate lawsuits that allege it improperly billed health care programs.
The Justice Department said Tuesday the drug store chain will pay around $209 million to federal and state governments for the first suit, which involves the way it distributed insulin pens.
According to U.S. prosecutors, Walgreens manipulated its pharmacy system to ensure pharmacists dispensed a box of five insulin pens to customers, even when it knew the patient didn't need that many.
That resulted in hundreds of thousands of insulin pens being distributed to customers from 2006 to 2017.
For the second suit, Walgreens will pay around $60 million over claims surrounding its prescription savings program.
Federal prosecutors say when Walgreens filed for Medicaid reimbursements, it didn't disclose the discounted prices it gave to customers on brand name and generic drugs.
In a statement, Walgreens said it cooperated with the government's investigation, but didn't admit to any wrongdoing.
Both of the cases stemmed from whistleblower lawsuits under the False Claims Act.
