The Justice Department is suing CVS over opioid practices, including some in Ohio

The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content sharing agreement.

The US Department of Justice is suing pharmacy giant CVS, accusing it of putting profits over patient safety and fueling the opioid crisis. The charges bear similarities to violations for which the Ohio Board of Pharmacy fined the company last year, and the DOJ complaint cites some of the board’s findings in its lawsuit.

The complaint was filed last week in Providence, RI

Essentially, it accuses CVS of understaffing its pharmacies to the extent that pharmacists and technicians could not make sure they were filling opioid prescriptions correctly. In addition, they accuse CVS of even more serious conduct.

“CVS also allegedly filled large amounts of prescriptions for controlled substances written by doctors it knew to be engaged in ‘pill mill practices’ — that is, doctors issuing large numbers of prescriptions for controlled substances for no medical purpose.” , a statement announcing the process. said. “According to the complaint, CVS ignored substantial evidence from multiple sources, including its own pharmacists and internal data, indicating that its stores were dispensing illegal prescriptions.”

Particularly notorious pill mills were located in and around Portsmouth, Ohio, a region that has been particularly hard hit by the opioid epidemic.

In a statement, CVS said it has already worked with law enforcement regarding the opioids.

“We have been cooperating with the DOJ investigation for more than four years and strongly disagree with the allegations and false narrative in this complaint,” it said. “We will vigorously defend against this misguided federal lawsuit, which follows years of litigation over these issues by state and local governments — claims that have already been largely resolved in a global settlement with state attorneys general participant”.

CVS added that it has taken extensive steps to stop the overprescribing of opioids.

“CVS Health has been an industry leader in developing innovative programs to combat opioid abuse,” the statement said. “As an example, 12 years ago, CVS Pharmacy pioneered a first-of-its-kind program to block prescriptions for controlled substances written by potentially interested physicians. To date, we have blocked more than 1,250 practitioners, including nearly 600 doctors that the government continues to license. This program is not required by any statute or regulation, and CVS Health has repeatedly defended lawsuits from those who say we are going too far in blocking opioid prescribers. “

However, the Justice Department accuses CVS of not wanting to spend enough money to adequately staff its pharmacies to operate safely. The Ohio Board of Pharmacy concluded the same in February, when it fined the company $250,000, placed a CVS store in Canton on indefinite hold and imposed new rules in an attempt to ensure adequate staffing. CVS later paid $1.25 million in fines to settle violations the Board of Pharmacy said it found at 22 Ohio CVS stores.

Inspection reports from those stores described waits of up to a month to fill prescriptions, expired and adulterated drugs on the shelves and a lack of checks as hundreds of doses of opioids such as oxycodone and hydromorphone went missing. Current and former CVS employees told the Capital Journal that upper management did not listen when pharmacy employees asked for more help. They added that the problems were not limited to CVS stores in Ohio.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit cited the Ohio findings and made similar allegations.

“The complaint alleges that CVS’s violations resulted from corporate-mandated performance metrics, incentive compensation and employment policies that prioritized corporate profits over patient safety,” the statement announcing the lawsuit said. “CVS has set staffing levels far too low for pharmacists to meet their performance parameters and comply with their legal obligations. CVS also allegedly deprived its pharmacists of essential information (including, for example, preventing pharmacists from alerting each other to certain prescribers) that could have reduced the number of illegal prescriptions filled. The complaint alleges that CVS’s actions helped fuel the opioid crisis and that, in some particularly tragic cases, patients died from opioid overdoses shortly after filling illegal prescriptions at CVS.

The lawsuit was brought following a whistleblower complaint by a former employee. Under federal law, whistleblowers are entitled to a share of the money recovered in such lawsuits.

Among its demands, the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeks treble damages, other financial penalties and a permanent injunction requiring him to release opioids in accordance with his legal obligations.