When commercially available medications’ standard dosage forms or amounts don’t quite fit a patient’s particular needs, the patient may benefit from customized compounded drugs. Medicare Part D, the prescription drug program, allows the private company sponsors that administer the benefit to cover compounded drugs under certain circumstances.[1] In recent years, Part D reimbursement to pharmacies for compounded drugs has increased significantly. A 2016 report by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department…

On Thursday, March 8, Kmart Corporation inked a settlement of a False Claims Act investigation[1] in which the qui tam relator initially alleged systematic pharmacy billing fraud across twenty-seven states for $525,000.[2] Brought by a pharmacist formerly employed at a Kmart in Lakeport, California, the original complaint alleged among other things that, instead of using a state-made drug utilization review alert system, Kmart relied on its own electronic systems that were not sufficiently…