DOJ accuses CVS of billing government for illegal opioid prescriptions

The Justice Department (DOJ) on Wednesday announced a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical chain CVS, accusing it of filling vast amounts of illegal opioid prescriptions and then billing it to the federal government.

The department claimed that the company, beginning in October of 2013, contributed to the opioid epidemic by ignoring red flags on prescriptions, filling dangerous quantities of opioids and dangerous combinations of drugs, which was then billed to the federal government.

The lawsuit was unsealed on Wednesday, but was filed in a federal court in Rhode Island last week, according to Reuters.