Ethics Newsline®

TALLAHASSEE, Florida
Pharmacy giant Rite Aid deliberately overcharged customers at the chain’s Florida stores who were elderly, uninsured, and in need of pain relief, state prosecutors charged last week.

Florida attorney general Bob Butterworth announced the allegations at a press conference, detailing a lawsuit against the nation’s third-largest pharmacy chain.

Rite Aid released a statement categorically denying any wrongdoing and insisting, “not one customer was deceived or defrauded.”

Butterworth charged that Rite Aid trained cashiers to add surcharges to the bills of customers who were least likely to complain — the elderly, the uninsured, and people recently released from hospital emergency rooms, the Associated Press reported.

Butterworth also charged that cash registers were equipped with a special key to automatically increase the price of a medication.

Rite Aid allegedly overcharged more than 29,000 customers an average of $1.15 on more than 80,000 prescriptions between 1994 and 1996.

Florida’s lawsuit, launched after a whistleblower came forward and settlement talks collapsed, seeks restitution and up to $25,000 per incident.