Walmart, Walgreens, CVS Shed Florida Hospitals’ Opioid RICO Suit

Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS have won a delayed victory over Florida hospitals’ opioid epidemic claims, with a state trial court ruling indirect harms to patients can’t support the medical providers’ lawsuit.

A Broward County Circuit Court decision shut down a racketeering case that regional health systems have developed since 2019. They claim pharmacies and drugmakers are responsible for the millions of dollars hospitals spent on a wave of patients flooding emergency rooms with complications from opioid abuse.

Those claims went to a trial last September, and a jury deadlocked. In the wake of that impasse, Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips ...