Long-term care pharmacy provider Omnicare has agreed to a $15.3 million settlement regarding accusations that it wrongly dispensed controlled substances without a valid prescription.
The District of Colorado’s U.S. Attorney’s office disclosed the settlement terms Wednesday. The allegations against Omnicare, which was acquired by CVS Health in 2015, stem from a May 2012 investigation regarding the handling and processing of controlled substance prescriptions at a total of nine long-term care pharmacies in Colorado, California, Utah and Oregon, according to the settlement agreement.
“The company is committed to the highest standards of business practices and meeting the needs of its long term care patients,” CVS Health said in a statement. “The matter was settled to avoid the expense and uncertainty of potential litigation and there was no admission of wrongdoing. This matter did not involve any of CVS Health’s other businesses, including CVS Pharmacy, CVS Caremark or Aetna.”
The accusations involve Omnicare’s handling of emergency kits, which are given to patients on an emergency basis and often include opioids and other controlled substances.
Authorities allege the pharmacy provider improperly allowed long-term care facilities to remove opioids and other controlled substances from the kits days before doctors provided valid prescriptions.They also claim the company had repeated documentation and reporting failures for its oral emergency prescriptions of schedule II controlled substances.
Per the agreement, Omnicare will also be required to increase its auditing and monitoring of emergency kits placed at long-term care facilities. Omnicare did not admit to any liability.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Colorado did not offer any additional details about the allegations or investigation.
