#Costco to pay $11.75M over handling of opioids and other drugs
Medications sit locked behind the counter of a pharmacy inside a Costco store. The Justice Department said some of Costco’s pharmacies improperly filled prescriptions for controlled substances.
Costco will pay $11.75 million to settle allegations that some of its pharmacies improperly filled prescriptions for controlled substances and failed to properly track opiods and other dangerous drugs, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.
Costco will pay $11.75 million to settle allegations that some of its pharmacies improperly filled prescriptions for controlled substances, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.
The Justice Department alleged that Costco pharmacies filled prescriptions that were incomplete, lacked valid Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) numbers or were for substances beyond some doctors’ scope of practice, and that Costco failed to keep and maintain accurate records for controlled substances, according to a news release from the department.
Eileen Decker, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said: “These are not just administrative or paperwork violations – Costco’s failure to have proper controls in place in its pharmacies played a role in prescription drugs reaching the black market.”
Under the settlement, which was reached Wednesday, Costco acknowledged that between Jan. 1, 2012 and Dec. 31, 2015, some of its pharmacies had violated the Controlled Substances Act by “filling prescriptions from practitioners who did not have a valid DEA number; incorrectly recording the practitioner’s DEA number; filling prescriptions outside the scope of a practitioner’s DEA registration; filling prescriptions that did not contain all the required information; failing to maintain accurate dispensing records; and failing to maintain records for their central fill locations in Sacramento, California and Everett, Washington,” according to the news release.
Costco also agreed to allow the DEA to conduct unannounced inspections of all DEA-registered Costco pharmacies over the next three years.
In addition, Costco has made improvements to its pharmacies, including buying a new pharmacy management system and implementing an audit program of its pharmacies that will include internal and exertal auditors.
Costco will pay the $11.75 million to the U.S. government. The settlement was announced by U.S. attorneys for western and eastern Washington, central California, eastern Michigan and eastern California. The case was investigated by the DEA in Seattle, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Detroit.
Filed under: General Problems
Perhaps if the DEA and Dept of Justice would have been focusing their investigations and lawsuits on drug dealers, cartels and individuals who have been involved in increasing the supply of heroin and ILLICIT fentanyl in America within the past few years, we wouldn’t have the huge supply of CHEAP heroin that we now have in this country. I guess it’s much more lucrative, financially rewarding, and easier to sit behind a desk, monitoring pharmacies’ and doctors’ prescribing habits enforcing millions of dollars worth of fines and UNCONSTITUTIONAL civil forfeitures, than actually getting off their asses and going after the real culprits (dealers and cartels).
No one should ever have that much control . It is so wrong an not American.
This is b.s,,,they want our medicines gone,seriously,, I bet cosco will no longer carry our medicines now,,,and the cost of everyones meds are going up,,,,,,I swear,,if we don’t stop this,,,we are all going to be dead,,,,,m