A no-fault agreement between the Centene Corporation and Mississippi is paying 55 million dollars that were overcharged to the state's Medicaid program. The fortune 50 company coordinated payments between the state's Medicaid system and prescription programs through small Pharmacy Benefits Managers. But the transactions were charging the state's Medicaid program beyond the legal limit says State Auditor Shad White.
“These sorts of overcharges were shown to trigger increases in prescription drug prices, so it hurts consumers in that way but also the taxpayers are paying for Medicaid both in Ohio and in Mississippi,” says White. “So we’re grateful that we’re getting the money back, but we’re also grateful that this is not going to happen again with this particular company.”
The investigation began in 2018 after White took office, and he says it came just after Ohio had announced its own investigation into overcharging prescription services. White says the money from the settlement is a sign that Centene wants to fix this issue.
“It shows that taxpayers can be comfortable, that somebody is watching out for them and is recouping these large amounts of moneys from very big and powerful companies. And we’re looking to make sure that this doesn’t happen again so that money ends up where it needs to end up and benefiting the actual taxpayers,” says White.
In a statement, Centene representatives say the company has restructured practices to avoid using pharmacy benefits managers and will use new systems that are more transparent about charges.
