Omnicare LLC and its parent company CVS Health Corporation have reached a proposed $440 million settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve allegations that Omnicare dispensed prescription medications to residents of long-term care facilities without valid prescriptions. The settlement represents a negotiated floor on liability following a nearly $949 million FCA judgment previously entered against the company — a judgment that Omnicare is seeking to resolve at a reduced amount through bankruptcy proceedings, with a final hearing scheduled for August 12, 2026.
The case traces its origins to 2015, when Uri Bassan, a pharmacist-in-charge at an Omnicare location in Albuquerque, New Mexico, filed a qui tam complaint under the False Claims Act alleging that the company was submitting claims to Medicare and Medicaid for drugs dispensed to long-term care patients without the legally required prescriptions. The DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York subsequently intervened in Bassan’s case — a step that significantly strengthens the government’s hand in litigation and, for the relator, locks in a statutory share of the recovery. Because the government intervened, Bassan is entitled under the FCA to between 15 and 25 percent of the amount recovered, though the precise dollar figure of his award has not yet been determined pending the outcome of the bankruptcy court proceedings.
At the midpoint of that statutory range, Bassan’s share of a $440 million recovery could approach $88 million, making this one of the more consequential individual relator awards to emerge from the long-term care pharmacy sector. The underlying fraud theory, that billing federal healthcare programs for drugs dispensed without valid prescriptions constitutes a false claim, reflects longstanding regulatory requirements designed to ensure that Medicare and Medicaid pay only for medically authorized care.