The Savings Club Settlement is a $100 million class-action resolution in Russo v. Walgreen Co. that Judge Edmond E. Chang of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted final approval on March 31, 2026. It resolves claims that Walgreens overcharged insured customers on generic prescriptions by not reporting the lower prices available through its Prescription Savings Club as the pharmacy’s “usual and customary” price.1Savings Club Settlement. Court Documents2Courthouse News Service. $100M Settlement Over Walgreens Savings Club
Who Was Covered
The settlement class includes all individuals and entities in the United States who paid for one or more prescription drugs at Walgreens using insurance benefits between January 1, 2007, and November 18, 2024. Customers who paid entirely out of pocket without insurance are not in the class, and neither are Walgreens employees, pharmacy benefit managers, or federal and state government entities. Government-funded employee benefit plans are eligible.3Classaction.org. Walgreens Savings Club Settlement Notice
The claims deadline has passed. Consumers and third-party payors had to submit a claim online at savingsclubsettlement.com or by mail to the administrator, A.B. Data, Ltd., by April 17, 2025.4Savings Club Settlement. Consumer Claim Form Individual claimants with a notice ID who were claiming less than $10,000 did not need to attach documentation. Anyone claiming $10,000 or more, or filing without a notice ID, had to provide proof such as itemized receipts or canceled checks.5WBAL-TV. Walgreens Class Action Settlement More than 17 million individual claims and 5,142 third-party payor claims were filed by the fairness hearing.6CaseMine. Russo et al v. Walgreen Co. et al
How the Money Is Split
Walgreens agreed to pay $100 million into a cash settlement fund and to permanently shut down the Prescription Savings Club, which it did on August 31, 2024.7Healthcare Finance News. Walgreens Pays $100 Million to Settle Class Action Drug Case6CaseMine. Russo et al v. Walgreen Co. et al After deductions, the remaining money is divided into two pools:
- 80% goes to third-party payors, meaning the health insurers and benefit plans that paid for prescription drugs on behalf of their members.
- 20% goes to individual consumers who paid copays or coinsurance on prescriptions filled at Walgreens during the class period.
Within each pool, payments are calculated on a pro rata basis relative to the size of each claimant’s recognized claim, so individual amounts depend on how much a claimant spent and how many valid claims are ultimately approved.3Classaction.org. Walgreens Savings Club Settlement Notice
The court approved deductions from the $100 million before distribution: $30 million in attorneys’ fees, roughly $2.5 million in litigation costs, and about $1.85 million in administration costs. Class representatives receive service awards of $5,000 each for individuals and $15,000 each for entities.6CaseMine. Russo et al v. Walgreen Co. et al
When Payments Go Out
No payments have been issued yet. As of the March 31, 2026 final approval, the administrator is still processing claims and contacting class members whose submissions have deficiencies. The settlement website states that no distributions will be made until the settlement is fully final and claims processing is complete.1Savings Club Settlement. Court Documents With more than 17 million individual claims to work through, that review is the current bottleneck.
What Walgreens Was Accused Of
Walgreens launched the Prescription Savings Club in 2007 as a membership program for customers without insurance. For $20 a year for individuals or $35 for families, members could buy generic drugs at steep discounts, typically $7.50 to $15 for a 30-day supply and $15 to $30 for a 90-day supply.8Healthcare Brew. Walgreens to Pay $100M to Settle Overbilling Charges
Under pharmacy industry standards, a pharmacy generally cannot charge an insurer more than the price it charges cash customers. The plaintiffs argued that the club’s rates were the pharmacy’s real “usual and customary” price for generic drugs because any walk-in customer could get them by paying the membership fee. Instead, they alleged, Walgreens reported higher prices to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, which pushed up the copays and coinsurance that insured customers paid at the counter and left health plans covering inflated balances. The claims included fraud, unjust enrichment, and violations of state consumer protection laws.8Healthcare Brew. Walgreens to Pay $100M to Settle Overbilling Charges3Classaction.org. Walgreens Savings Club Settlement Notice
Walgreens denied the allegations and has maintained throughout the case that the claims lacked merit.9NWA Homepage. Walgreens Savings Club Settlement: Do You Qualify for Portion of $100 Million?
The Blue Cross Mass Opt-Out
One dispute at the fairness stage is worth flagging for insured claimants whose coverage runs through Blue Cross entities. Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Health Care Service Corporation entities tried to opt out roughly 24,000 commercial clients through a single mass request. On August 7, 2025, Judge Chang invalidated those opt-outs because each class member was required to submit an exclusion request individually with proof of legal authority. The insurers’ motion for reconsideration was denied as procedurally improper and untimely, so those clients remain in the class.6CaseMine. Russo et al v. Walgreen Co. et al
The Separate 2017 Federal Settlement
The Savings Club Settlement is not the same case as the $50 million agreement Walgreens reached with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in January 2017. That earlier settlement resolved civil fraud claims that Walgreens violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by enrolling government healthcare beneficiaries, including Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE recipients, in the club. Walgreens admitted that from 2007 through 2015 it enrolled hundreds of thousands of government beneficiaries despite internal policies meant to prevent it, and that between May 2008 and August 2010 it paid employees bonuses of $1 to $5 per enrollment without checking whether customers were government beneficiaries. About $46.2 million of that recovery went to the federal government and $3.8 million to state claims.10U.S. Department of Justice. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces $50 Million Settlement With Walgreens That money went to the government, not to consumers, and is not part of the current class-action fund.