McKesson Corp. Pays U.S. More Than $190 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations
- April 30, 2012 by Qui Tam
- Federal False Claims Act, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals
On Thursday, April 26, 2012, Stuart F. Delery, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division; New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman; and Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the McKesson Corporation has agreed to pay the United States a $190 million settlement to resolve allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act.
The government alleges that McKesson, a large drug wholesaler, reported inflated pricing information for a large quantity of brand name drugs to First DataBank (FDB), a publisher of drug prices that are used by most state Medicaid programs to set payment rates for pharmaceuticals. The false information caused FDB to publish inflated AWPs (Average Wholesale Price) for those drugs.
The Medicaid program is funded jointly by the federal and state governments. This settlement resolves claims based on the federal share of Medicaid overpayments. State governments can separately negotiate with McKesson to resolve claims based on the states’ shares of the Medicaid overpayments.
For more information, please see:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/April/12-civ-539.html