DEA: Government reaches civil settlement with Carver CVS
http://halifax.wickedlocal.com/article/20150729/NEWS/150726364
BOSTON – The United States has reached a civil settlement with CVS Health in connection with allegations that the CVS pharmacy in Carver violated federal regulations related to the sale of prescription drugs.Twice in the spring of 2014 (March 14 and May 27), armed robbers stole large quantities of Schedule II prescription drugs from the CVS pharmacy at 100D North Main St. in Carver. Federal law required CVS to report those thefts immediately to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). While CVS did report the May theft immediately, the company waited three weeks to report the theft that occurred in March.A year ago this week, DEA investigators visited the Carver pharmacy to audit its controlled substances, using inventory and purchase and sale records that were not impacted by the robberies.
The investigators found record-keeping discrepancies effecting hundreds of Schedule II pills.The government contended that CVS had failed to keep complete and accurate records of its controlled substances, in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.
The settlement requires CVS to pay the government a fine of $50,000.“Prescription drugs handled by pharmacies are subject to strict requirements because of the potential for harm and abuse,” U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said. “This office will continue to ensure that pharmacies meet federal record-keeping requirements, which are the primary way that the government regulates controlled substances.”The agreement was signed late last week and Ortiz and Michael J. Ferguson, special agent in charge of the DEA’s New England Field Division, announced the settlement Monday (July 27). The investigation was conducted by diversion investigators with the DEA’s New England Division. The case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Wichers of Ortiz’s Civil Division.
Filed under: General Problems
Up until this year, C-2 record keeping was done “by hand” : deliveries were manually entered in a log book and filled prescriptions were tracked by “stickers” which were supposed to be entered in the book in a timely manner. By the end of each month, the pharmacist was required to reconcile this log book (which consisted of over 100 drugs with hundreds of entries). A company that spends billions on acquisitions was only about 10-15 years behind the times. Why is it surprising there were discrepancies? Now the company is complaining that there is a huge internal theft problem and has instituted draconian methods to resolve this. Perhaps if employees were better treated, they would hesitate to steal or cheat.
A fine of 50,000? Might as well be a nickel.
What’s with all this record keeping fines? A $50,000 fine because they didn’t like the way they kept their records? Nothing was missing? This is getting ridiculous.
Those pesky records.
What if??????
Guess the coffers were low.