RALEIGH, N.C. (NCN News) — Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced a $40 million multistate settlement to resolve fraud allegations against the international grocery retailer Ahold Delhaize, which owns supermarkets including North Carolina based Food Lion. As part of the settlement, North Carolina will receive $503,460 in restitution and other recoveries.
“Companies have a responsibility to report prescription drug prices accurately, especially when taxpayer dollars are on the line,” said Jackson in a press release. “When companies fail to meet that responsibility, we’ll work with our partners to hold them accountable and recover money for public programs.”
The settlement resolves allegations that Ahold Delhaize violated the False Claims Act. Ahold Delhaize supermarkets offered prescription savings programs that gave members discounted prices on prescription drugs. Under the rules for Medicare Part D, Medicaid and TRICARE, these discounted prices should have been reported as the pharmacies’ “usual and customary” prices on claims to those programs. These prices help determine how much the programs pay pharmacies for prescription drugs. Other stores owned by the company mentioned in the settlement include Giant, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop.
Instead, the supermarkets allegedly reported inflated “usual and customary” prices for prescription drugs in claims submitted to federal health care programs. As a result, Medicare Part D, Medicaid and TRICARE paid more than they should have for prescription drugs.
This settlement results from a whistleblower lawsuit originally filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units (NAMFCU) team, including the North Carolina Department of Justice and the attorneys general offices in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, worked with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania to investigate the case and negotiate the settlement.