The federal government and more than two dozen states have reached an $8 million settlement with Omnicare Inc. resolving allegations arising from a whistleblower lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act.
The United States alleged that Omnicare, in an effort to increase business efficiency and profit, designed and implemented an automated label verification system at certain locations that used a less specific drug code – known as “MEDID” – during its automated Stage II pharmacist verification process, instead of the more specific National Drug Code (“NDC”).
According to the government, this system resulted in the submission by Omnicare of claims for generic drugs different from those actually dispensed to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. It also allegedly resulted in the dispensing of drugs with patient-specific labels displaying the incorrect manufacturer or NDC.
The government alleged that the false manufacturer and NDC information on the labels, and within Omnicare's electronic dispensing information, affected Omnicare's ability to properly track and, if necessary, conduct patient-level recalls of such drugs.
The relators, or whistleblowers, in the underlying qui tam will receive more than $2 million as their statutory share of the recovery and to resolve their employment-based claims in accordance with the False Claims Act.
The civil lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and was captioned U.S. et al. ex rel. Elizabeth Corsi and Christopher Ezzie v. Omnicare Inc.
Learn more: Omnicare_settlement.pdf.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].