U.S. ex rel. Behnke v. CVS Caremark Corp. et al. – Challenging the False Reporting of Medicare Drug Prices

Berger Montague, a leading national plaintiffs’ law firm, has won a $289,873,500 final judgment on behalf of whistleblower Sarah Behnke in this False Claims Act whistleblower case against pharmacy benefits manager Caremark and related entities. The judge trebled the single damages of $95 million and awarded civil penalties of $4.8 million, bringing the full amount that the Caremark defendants must pay to almost $290 million.

In awarding $4.8 million in civil penalties, the Court noted that it was imposing a per-claim penalty “near the top of the statutory range” of $5,500 to $11,000 because “Caremark’s misconduct was serious.”

After an eight-day bench trial, the Court found that the Caremark defendants were liable for false and inflated drug prices that had been reported to the Government for prescriptions filled for Medicare Part D beneficiaries at two national chain pharmacies (Walgreens and Rite Aid), causing the federal government to overpay for these generic drugs.

In its summary judgment decision on April 2, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted partial summary judgment in favor of the whistleblower, ruling as a matter of law that some of the reported prices were false (leaving to the jury to decide whether additional reported prices also were false).  The Court also rejected the CVS Health defendants’ attempt to have the claims dismissed without trial.

About Berger Montague

Berger Montague is one of the nation’s preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions, whistleblower cases, and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. With nearly $2.4 billion in 2025 post-trial judgments alone, the Firm is a leader in the fields of complex litigation, antitrust, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities, and whistleblower cases, among other practice areas. For over 55 years, Berger Montague has played leading roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago; Malvern, PA; Minneapolis; San Diego; San Francisco; Toronto, Canada; Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, DE.