Mount Vernon medical clinic to pay $120k for importing foreign medication not approved by FDA

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement with a Mount Vernon health clinic after they unlawfully imported birth control from a foreign source that was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Skagit Family Health Clinic will pay a total of $120,000 to the state and federal governments for "false claims the clinic filed with the state or federal medical programs," the DOJ said of the settlement. 

"FDA approval is a critical way for government medical programs to ensure patients get appropriate medicines and devices," said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. "We don’t have evidence that any patients were harmed from these unapproved medications, but government programs cannot pay for clients to take such a risk."

The pre-litigation settlement claims the clinic imported and billed for the medications between 2015 and 2020. The clinic submitted claims for the birth control medications to the Washington State Medicaid Program, according to the DOJ.

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