The claims made in the complaint are allegations the United States must prove if the case proceeds to trial. The FDA's decision came just days after a Justice Department ruling confirmed that U.S. Below are 18 legal actions involving members of the drug supply chain, including pharmacists, drugmakers, payers and others, reported by Becker's Hospital Review in the last two months: Copyright © 2023 Becker's Healthcare. Strader claims in the new lawsuit that her Christian faith prevented her from prescribing contraceptive or abortion-inducing drugs to patients at the CVS where she worked. This incident took place around September 26, 2019. Here are 5 recent legal cases pharmacists should know. 5 min read. J. Robyn Strader, a nurse practitioner and Texas resident, worked at a CVS MinuteClinic for six and a half years, according to the lawsuit, which she filed through her attorney in U.S. district court in Forth Worth on Wednesday. In todays work environment, employers and employees are becoming more aware of discrimination, recognizing and resolving the ongoing problems. Top Class Actions reports that Walgreens got sued in a class-action lawsuit for failing to report a widespread data breach that happened in 2019. C LEVELAND A federal judge in Cleveland awarded $650 million in damages Wednesday to two Ohio counties that won a landmark lawsuit against national pharmacy . In addition, the court found copious amounts of colored highlighting and other forms of emphasis, the meaning of which the court was unable to discern. The jury agreed with Roger and awarded him $400,000 in back pay and $400,000 in damages. FILE - The Walgreens logo on the front of a store, July 14, 2021, in Cambridge, Mass. 1:11. These were some of the legal questions posed during a session on pharmacy case law at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) 2016 Annual Meeting and Exposition. Although CVS claimed that he was fired for work performance issues, Roger shared how his district supervisor called him old man and then the nickname caught on among his coworkers. Walgreens will pay $7.5 million to settle allegations that for more than a decade it let an unlicensed pharmacist handle hundreds of thousands of prescriptions . 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SEATTLE Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit today against Albertsons, Kroger and Rite Aid, whose pharmacy chains helped fuel Washington state's opioid epidemic. With more news to come on this case, Morris said he expected to report on this case at next years APhA meeting. But, in August 2021, CVS Health revoked a previous policy regarding religious accommodations that ensured all employees' needs would be met, the suit says. And a tearful video posted online by a California woman with stage 4 breast cancer went viral after a Rite Aid pharmacist refused to fill her prescription for Norco. Here are 5 recent legal cases pharmacists should know. Livestreaming on Facebook, a man known online as the "vaccine police" harassed pharmacists at a Walmart in Springfield saying the workers would be "executed" for administering the . The court did not feel that was an appropriate decision in this case. According to an article in The Ledger, Hippeley's family sued Walgreens, claiming that a fifteen-year old pharmacy assistant mistakenly gave her a blood thinner prescription that was ten times stronger than she was supposed to be taking. Drug: Zyprexa (generic: olanzapine) Eli Lilly promoted antipsychotic drug Zyprexa for uses outside the FDA's approval, which resulted in criminal fines of $515 million and civil settlements of $800 million. The complaint states Dembo dispensed high dosages of Subsys to patients despite knowing they did not qualify for the drug. Cookie Policy. When you notice an injustice or irregularity between how your employer treats you and how he or she treats another employee, take note. Spivack and the other employees at Verree routinely demonstrated total disregard for their professional and ethical obligations and improperly dispensed powerful painkillers when numerous warning signs were present., The Medicare and Medicaid Programs provide vital prescription drug services to their beneficiaries, said Maureen R. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Regional Office for the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. harms to millions of Americans across the nation. "We cannot grant exemptions from these essential MinuteClinic functions.". In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesman for Walgreens said Ms. While Aitkin County District Judge David Hermerding, in a pretrial order, ruled that Badeauxs religious rights are not the issue at stake in the case, the pharmacist spent the bulk of his time on the stand explaining the religious reasons why he has refused to fill contraception prescriptions for Anderson and three other customers during his career. The court determined that trypanophobia was a neurological impairment and also found that providing immunizations was not in the essential job functions of a Rite Aid district manager. For over a decade, Kim Thien Le handled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions without a license, including many for highly addictive opioids like oxycodone, prosecutors in California have said. Back in August 2015, Joel Kurtzberg, a lawyer for Amarin, told The New York Times that he believed this was perhaps the first decision that clearly and unequivocally rebuffs the governments view that off-label promotion can be prosecuted, even if truthful and nonmisleading.. Rite Aid maintained that a fear of needles didnt count as a disability, so his firing was for a legitimate reason. 8 For this error, the board found him responsible for misbranding and mislabeling a drug in violation of Ohio law. 10. Be sure to have the report in writing for your own personal files. However, the law protects the rights of all employees. The jury decided that Wal-Mart not only participated in gender discrimination but also retaliation for Maureens safety concerns. Despite these warning signs, the complaint alleges, Dembo continuously dispensed prescriptions she knew or should have known had no medical purpose. During the visit, the inspector asked the pharmacist some questions about potential violations of board rules. My Office will use every resource it has to pursue and hold these individuals accountable. The board could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday. IE 11 is not supported. Let's say that a patient is already taking three prescriptions from three different doctors when he shows up at the pharmacist with a fourth prescription from a fourth doctor. When Amarin started promoting its drug Vascepa for an off-label use, the FDA deemed the product misbranded. The lawsuit asserts that the pharmacy could have transferred Strader to a role that would not require her to be in situations where she might have to prescribe birth control, instead of keeping her in an "essential" position where providing religious accommodation directly conflicted with the function of her job. It will hopefullyimprove their quality of life and save many lives in the process.". The pharmacist followed the inspector outside, continued yelling, and attempted to open the locked door of the inspectors state car while she was inside. The only medication that gives Smith relief from headache pain are opioids. Official websites use .gov The company was accused of hiding the menopause drug's cancer risks. Male pharmacists and female pharmacists have faced employment discrimination for age, race, gender, and disability. For both acute and chronic pain, opioid prescriptions were not filled if they exceeded a 90mg MME daily dose. Walgreen Co., based in Deerfield, Ill . Dr. Fink is a professor of pharmacy law and policy and the Kentucky Pharmacists Association Endowed Professor of Leadership at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, Lexington. Here are the ten most impactful Walgreens lawsuits in its history. In the modern health care system, the pharmacist's job can go well beyond simply counting out pills and giving them out to a patient who is holding a prescription. SACRAMENTO California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced a lawsuit against the nation's largest insulin makers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for driving up the cost of the lifesaving drug through unlawful, unfair, and deceptive business . Pharmacies are required to only bill for prescriptions and products they actually provide to their patients. Citing both the Civil Rights Act and another court case that states employers must consider religious accommodation requests on an individual basis, the lawsuit also claims that CVS "failed to engage with her about possible accommodations, and terminated her because of her religious beliefs.". The jury was not deciding what the law is, they were deciding the facts of what happened here in this particular case. While pharmacies have a legal right to refuse to fill prescriptions they consider suspicious or inappropriate, the lawsuits allege that CVS, Walgreens and Costco adopted corporate policies that encourage their pharmacists to profile patients as drug abusers and impose limits on opioid medication. DeAngelis echoed that sentiment in another statement shared with CBS News after Strader's lawsuit was filed. In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind case, Anderson filed the lawsuit against Badeaux and the pharmacy he works for three years ago under the Minnesota Human Rights Act. Other big pharmacy chains have similar policies. Can a pharmacist who is afraid of needles be fired for not providing immunizations? The pharmacist argued that Rite Aid violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and New York State Human Rights Law. I try to live the way He would want me to live. It is not only a crisis for Edith and Susan, but for millions of Americans due to the backlash caused in part by the national publicity concerning opioid abuse, said Scott Hirsch, a Florida lawyer who is one of several lead attorneys handling the cases. When Stilling mentioned how much the . Philadelphia, PA 19106, Telephone:(215) 861-8200 To be clear, the law in Minnesota prohibits sex discrimination and that includes refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception, Gender Justice Legal Director Jess Braverman said. Its my belief, based on lots of thinking and reading, that this [fertilized egg] is a new life, Badeaux said. According to the complaint, this sophisticated fraudwhich one of the employees admitted to investigatorsresulted in significant losses to Medicare and other federal programs. In this case, a patient sought sanctions against a pharmacy for willful spoliation of evidence after Walgreens threw out a bottle and pills that were returned after a misfill. Pharmacists are entrusted to dispense medications to patients, so their mistakes can have life-altering or life-threatening consequences. In a recent letter to the CDC, the American Medical Association called the CVS and Walgreens policies "inappropriate" because they misapplied the CDC opioid guideline in ways that were harmful to patients. There are several defenses a pharmacist may have against a medical malpractice lawsuit. Stevens was fired after he refused to go to training, which led him to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Anderson filed a lawsuit Monday in Minnesota's 9th Judicial District Court alleging that pharmacist George Badeaux told her that he would not give her the morning-after pill because of his . Mountain Brook police were on the scene as well as an employee who was helping clean up. 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Pain patients in the U.S. have complained for years about pharmacists refusing to fill their opioid prescriptions or reducing them to lower doses. If Dembo is found liable for violating the CSA, she could face civil penalties of up to $67,627 for each unlawful prescription filled. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Badeaux informed her that there would be another pharmacist working the next day, who might be willing to fill the medication but that he could not guarantee that they would help, the complaint stated. Some employees receive special protections from the law if they belong in the category of protected classes. Whether it be dispensing the wrong medication entirely or dispensing the wrong strength of the proper medication, any pharmacist who deviates from the physician's instructions and gives out the wrong medication is almost always going to be found negligent. Pharmacy Errors in the News -HIPAA In 2014 the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a $1.4 million verdict against Walgreen Co. and one of its pharmacists who shared confidential medical information about a client that had once dated the pharmacist's husband. Once he received the final order from the board, he filed a new lawsuit in federal court, citing what were, in his view, a substantial number of legal violations by the board. What if they have no other choice? This conduct by pharmacies causes. The lawsuit alleged the pharmacist improperly reviewed the For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Despite those challenges, the court went through the filings and identified several factual allegations undergirding the lawsuit. The remaining claim for battery (ie, unconsented to offensive touching) was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the pharmacist was free to pursue that, if he wished, in state court. Another pharmacist at a CVS in the city of Aitkin also blocked Anderson from getting the prescription filled. Addressing the allegations included in it against CVS Health, the spokesperson said that there is still a corporate channel for employees to request, and in some cases, receive accommodation for religious beliefs, which can involve exemptions from professional duties. The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy held a hearing on a formal complaint against the pharmacist on April 11, 2007, a little over a year after the incident that caused the death of Emily Jerry. 10. Le did not have a license during a state pharmacy board audit in 2017. This website is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. CVS sells prescription drugs, general over-the-counter drugs, and merchandise that relates to drug-store sales. Pharmacy negligence can lead to a valid medical malpractice lawsuit against the pharmacist or the pharmacy entity. The son of Bernice Bond filed a statement of claim June 15, 2017 a year after the 90-year-old woman's death against pharmacist Alexandra Willson, Canso Pharmacy and an unnamed pharmacy . The alleged cornerstone of the scheme was a code used by the pharmacy employees in their internal computer system: BBDF or Bill But Dont Fill. Verree, Spivack and their co-conspirators allegedly used BBDF as a means to cover their losses on other drugs and further line their pockets with illicit profits by falsely claiming to insurers, including Medicare, that they had dispensed a drug to a patient, when in fact they had not. A locked padlock Three major drug distributors and the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson have agreed to a $26 billion settlement with states to resolve thousands of lawsuits over the . For the majority of Strader's tenure there, she says CVS granted her a religious accommodation that allowed her to personally reject patients' requests for those prescriptions and instead refer them to a colleague or a different MinuteClinic. KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images. At times, class action lawsuits are filed against the responsible companies, which are worth well over $10,000,000. The California and Rhode Island cases are believed to be the first class action lawsuits to address the problem. CVS Caremark Deceptive Pricing FTC Charges. Anderson, who filed the civil lawsuit against pharmacist George Badeaux in 2019 after she was forced to make a 100-mile round trip to get the contraceptive, said she intends to appeal the jury . The lawsuit alleges that Verree and Spivack illegally dispensed unparalleled quantities of opioids and other controlled substances into the Philadelphia community. Le falsely impersonated Walgreens pharmacists and used a license of someone who had the same first name, the authorities have said. HHS-OIG will continue to work with the U.S. Attorneys Office, the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office, and the DEA to investigate allegations of fraudulent insurance billings., We know that nearly 80% of those who use heroin first started with misusing a prescription opioid, said Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Pharmacy quality and safety are top priorities, and upon learning of this issue, we undertook a reverification of the licenses of all our pharmacists nationwide, the spokesman said. Can not grant exemptions from these essential MinuteClinic functions. `` employee who was helping up... To only bill for prescriptions and products they actually provide to their patients and 400,000... Lawsuit alleged the pharmacist improperly reviewed the for an optimal experience visit our site on another browser to their.! 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