Coakley
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced on Monday that her office has reached a $2,650,000 settlement with a pharmacy chain that allegedly overcharged public entities on prescriptions.
CVS Pharmacy, Inc., allegedly overcharged Massachusetts towns, cities and other political subdivisions more than $1.3 million since 2002 for various prescription drugs under the workers compensation insurance system.
"Towns and cities are under a great deal of economic stress, and every dollar counts," Coakley said.
"Here, the towns and cities were overcharged for prescription drug purchases. Through today's action, we have recovered that money directly back to the cities and towns, returned more than $1.3 million for Massachusetts' taxpayers, and worked to prevent such overcharges from happening in the future. We appreciate CVS' cooperation in resolving these matters."
According to the agreement, CVS is required to repay all alleged overcharges to the approximate 200 cities and towns it collected from.
The company must also pay an additional $1.35 million to the Commonwealth's general fund. Boston will receive $60,000 in restitution, with the cities of Brockton, Lowell, Fall River and Springfield set to see about $10,000 each. Other cities will collect based on the volume of overcharges and will, on average, receive nearly $4,500 each.