AlixaRx, LLC, a national provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, has agreed to pay the United States $2.75 million to resolve allegations that it violated federal law by, among other things, allowing opioids and other controlled substances to be dispensed without valid prescriptions between January 1, 2014 and December 13, 2017. AlixaRx is a pharmacy company that dispenses prescription drugs, including controlled substances, to long-term care facilities, primarily through on-site automatic dispensing units (“ADUs”). AlixaRx supplied these ADUs with drugs through seven regional hubs located throughout the country. Each hub, as well as each ADU, was separately registered with the DEA as a pharmacy able to dispense controlled substances.
The Government alleged that AlixaRx violated the federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) in its dispensing pursuant to purported “emergency prescriptions.” In nearly all circumstances, Schedule II controlled substances require a written prescription by a physician, and refills are not permitted by law. The CSA allows pharmacists to dispense Schedule II controlled substances, such as opioid pain medications, without a written prescription only in true emergency situations and, even then, only for the quantity of drugs necessary to treat the patient during the emergency period. Emergency prescriptions must promptly be reduced to writing and signed by an authorizing physician within seven days of issuance. Failure to meet these requirements results in an illegal dispensing of controlled substances without a valid prescription.
The Government’s investigation revealed that AlixaRx routinely abused the emergency prescription provisions of the CSA by requesting and obtaining verbal “emergency” refills from prescribers, in the absence of any true emergency. Instead, the company used these purported emergency prescriptions to effectuate simple refills of the patients’ medications. Moreover, AlixaRx routinely failed to obtain written prescriptions within seven days after the verbal authorization. Rather than disclose these violations to the DEA as required by law, AlixaRx engaged in a nationwide scheme to cover up its violations by obtaining backdated prescriptions from the prescribing physicians, in many cases over a year after the controlled substances were dispensed. Finally, the Government resolved allegations that AlixaRx submitted false claims to Medicare for invalid emergency prescriptions, as discussed above. The Government also resolved claims that AlixaRx billed Medicare Part D for claims that had already been reimbursed through claims paid to long-term care facilities under Medicare Part A.
