The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a whistleblower-initiated case that pharmacy operators SuperValu and Safeway submitted false Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement claims for prescription drugs.
The case is considered to be important because it could impact the government’s ability to crack down on health care fraud.
Lawsuits brought by whistleblowers allege the two supermarket chains billed the two government programs at artificially high rates while charging most paying customers significantly lower prices under discount schemes. Federal law mandates that pharmacies bill the programs the typical prices they actually make customers pay. The whistleblowers claim the chains knew they were overcharging the government and covered up their pricing policies….