State officials investigating Medicaid providers on overcharging taxpayers

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The fortune 500 company, Centene, and other firms may have overcharged taxpayers. Mississippi State officials are currently investigating whether certain firms have overcharged, as they managed to pull in billions of dollars worth of state Medicaid health insurance benefits.

According to a report by the Daily Journal, the probe was confirmed by the Mississippi Division of Medicaid. Outside attorneys were hired to investigate and pursue claims regarding the management of pharmacy benefits by Centene. A similar lawsuit against Centene exists in Ohio, where Centene allegedly overcharged Ohio taxpayers millions of dollars.

In the Ohio suit, there are allegedly three areas of wrongdoing:

• Requesting reimbursement for amounts already paid by the state
• Not disclosing pharmacy services true cost
• Artificially inflating drug dispensing fees.

The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office has retained the law firm Liston & Deas to investigate into the financial losses. Liston & Deas is also working with Ohio’s Attorney General’s Office on their lawsuit against Centene. The claim in Ohio is that their subsidiary, Buckeye Health Plan, inflated the costs by using a network of pharmacy benefit subcontractors.

The investigation comes as the state moves towards bidding out new five-year managed care contracts.