(The Center Square) – The Office of the Attorney General’s Civil Medicaid Fraud Division settled an enforcement action brought under the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act against several pharmaceutical drug manufacturers.
Under the agreement, the drug manufacturers will pay more than $42 million to settle the claims against the companies, according to an Aug. 8 news release.
The manufacturers involved are Shire PLC, Baxter International Inc., Baxalta Inc., Viropharma Inc., Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., and Takeda Pharmaceuticals America.
“The settlement resolves allegations that the drug manufacturers violated the TMFPA by providing, directly or indirectly, nursing and reimbursement services to Texas Medicaid providers for certain pharmaceutical drugs, as well as by paying clinical nurse educators to refer or recommend the drug Vyvanse to providers from January 2014 to December 2015,” according to the news release.
The alleged TMFPA violations were originally brought in a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower under the qui tam provisions of the TMFPA
“For three years during the COVID-19 pandemic, people did not have to go through any kind of renewal process to stay on Medicaid,” according to an analysis by KFF. “That changed in April, and now every state is winnowing its rolls — some much more quickly than others. Texas reported disenrolling 82% of its Medicaid recipients it had processed through May.”
This article First appeared in the center square