Walgreens agrees to settlement in Humana drug overcharge lawsuit

Walgreens overcharge settlement overview: 

• Who: Walgreens reached a $360 million overcharge settlement with Humana.
• Why: Walgreens was accused of overcharging for prescription drugs by not submitting an accurate usual and customary price for the drugs.
• Where: The Walgreens Humana settlement was reached in a case in federal court in the District of Columbia.

Walgreens reached a $360 million settlement with Humana in a complaint saying that the pharmacy chain overcharged the insurance carrier for prescription drugs.

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes signed off on dismissing the lawsuit with prejudice in a Jan. 5 order.

Walgreens paid $150 million of the settlement in December 2023 after a Dec. 29 agreement and the company has fully accrued the settlement funds, it says in a Form 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“The Company’s retail pharmacies overcharged for prescription drugs by not submitting the correct usual and customary price during the claims adjudication process,” the filing said. “These actions have been brought by different types of plaintiffs, including insurance companies, plan members, government and private payors, based on different legal theories.” 

Humana previously earned $642M arbitration ruling in case

The case was previously sent to arbitration, with the American Arbitration Association issuing a $642 million ruling in favor of Humana.

Walgreens says that it has asked a federal court to vacate that award. 

Crowell & Moring, representing Humana in arbitration, had a conflict of interest because it previously advised Walgreens on pricing policies that led to the issue, Law360 reports. Crowell and Moring then solicited Humana as a client against Walgreens in what Walgreens called a “betrayal.”

Walgreens is facing a November class action lawsuit in Illinois federal court saying that it makes repeated unwanted robocalls to customers on do-not-call lists.

Have you had a Walgreens prescription paid for through Humana? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Selina Coleman, Frederick Robinson, Megan F. Engel, David A. Bender, Michael S. Leib, Caitlin A. Chambers and Megan K. Ali of Reed Smith LLC; Courtney R. Forrest, William E. Zapf, Stephen Gilson and Sarah Fink of Kaiser PLCC; and Randall W. Jackson and Alexandra P. Sadinsky of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz.

The Walgreens overcharge lawsuit settlement is Walgreen Co. v. Humana Health Plan Inc., et al., Case No. 1:22-cv-00307-ACR, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Humana uses AI to deny elderly patients Medicare care, class action claims
• Cigna class action claims software automatically denies large batches of claims without review
• Blue Cross Blue Shield class action claims insurer shared medical info with third parties
• Geico files $4.4M lawsuit claiming medical providers submitted fraudulent claims