Ohio's attorney general sued Centene Corp. on Thursday, alleging the St. Louis-based insurer used a "web of subcontractors" to obscure drug costs and overcharge the state's Medicaid program for millions of dollars in pharmacy benefits.
"Corporate greed has led Centene and its wholly owned subsidiaries to fleece taxpayers out of millions," Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement. "This conspiracy to obtain Medicaid payments through deceptive means stops now."
The suit was filed in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas and is sealed. Centene subsidiary Buckeye Health Plan is a managed-care organization the Ohio Department of Medicaid has contracted with to administer health benefits to its 2.9 million lower-income adults and children enrollees.
By contracting with multiple sister companies Envolve Health Solutions and Health Net Pharmacy Solutions, Yost alleged that Centene filed reimbursement requests for amounts already paid by third parties, artificially inflated drug dispensing fees and didn't accurately disclose the true cost of its pharmacy services.
Centene said the state reviewed and pre-approved the pharmacy contracts before it went into effect. The company called the attorney general's claims unfounded and said that its Envolve subsidiary plans to "aggressively defend" the integrity of the service it has provided.
"These services saved millions of tax-payer dollars for Ohioans from market-based pharmaceutical pricing," Centene said in a statement.
The Ohio attorney general's office did not immediately respond to an interview request.
