Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Brian D. Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England, announced that Clarest, LLC, doing business as Clarest Health, ProCare LTC New England LTC, and ProCare LTC Pharmacy of Connecticut LLC (“ProCare”), have entered into a civil settlement agreement with the federal government and have paid $499,525 to resolve allegations that they violated the civil provisions of the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). ProCare LTC Pharmacy of Connecticut services 65 long-term care (“LTC”) facilities, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living locations, and rehab and nursing practices in Connecticut and Rhode Island. In addition to filling prescriptions, it also fulfills orders for controlled substances for LTC facilities’ emergency stock needs. This emergency stock is commonly referred to as a facility’s “emergency box.”
The settlement resolves allegations that between September 2020 and September 2022, ProCare violated the CSA and its implementing regulations when supplying controlled substances for LTC facilities’ emergency box stock. The government contends that ProCare distributed controlled substances to practitioners that were not registered to dispense those controlled substances on 96 occasions. The government also alleges that ProCare failed to record certain required information on DEA Form 222s (order forms) on numerous occasions, such as dates, numbers of containers furnished, and DEA registration numbers, and that ProCare failed to reject order forms that were not properly prepared, were incomplete, or had been altered. As part of the settlement, ProCare has agreed to enter into a three-year Corrective Action Plan with the DEA that is designed to ensure future compliance with the requirements of the CSA and its implementing regulations.
