Rite Aid got caught knowingly filing illegal and suspicious opioid prescriptions, got slapped with a lawsuit, and now is restructuring.
They fueled the opioid crisis for profit, got caught, and now the courts are bailing them out of their debts
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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On the bright side they put my two local pharmacies out of business.
The debt isn't even that much—the settlements are only about $30 million. The new funding they're getting is over 100x that much.
Were they forcing pharmacists to fill suspicious scripts? I'm not putting my license on the line for that shit
“We allege that Rite Aid filled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions that did not meet legal requirements,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “According to our complaint, Rite Aid’s pharmacists repeatedly filled prescriptions for controlled substances with obvious red flags, and Rite Aid intentionally deleted internal notes about suspicious prescribers. These practices opened the floodgates for millions of opioid pills and other controlled substances to flow illegally out of Rite Aid’s stores.”
I won’t pretend to know a ton about finance, but I don’t like that so many large companies can get away with going bankrupt and then just “restructuring” instead of going out of business. Maybe it’s actually a good thing, I’m not sure, it definitely seems kinda scummy to me though.
Just remember: consequences to your actions are for the poor.
Chapter 11 is basically a debt consolidation plan overseen by the courts. It doesn't wipe out debt, in fact it requires creditors to agree to the plan. It is not just for large companies, small companies use it too.
There is even a version for individuals called Chapter 13. But it's more useful to companies than individuals, since debt consolidation usually involves selling part ownership of the company and that's obviously not an option for individuals.
Not yet anyway.
Individuals can do this, too. You don't even have to be rich. It's called Chapter 11, and it isn't just for companies. That said, it's just a pause while you restructure your finances and requires an approved get-well plan. Individuals would have a hard time coming up with a get-well plan that doesn't include "get a better job" or "don't pay off this huge debt."
The airlines (and many other industries) have used it against organized labor.
It's just code for it's hard for them to pay their debts so they want to Welch on some of the ones they don't want to pay. (Like pesky lawsuits for fueling the opioid epidemic).
TIL Rite Aid still exists
Walgreens attempted to buy Rite Aid for about $9.4 billion in a deal announced in 2015. But the larger drugstore chain scaled back its ambition a couple years later and bought only a chunk of Rite Aid, around 1,900 stores, to get the deal past antitrust regulators.