Pharmaceutical companies pay state in fraud case

JACKSON — The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office says it has recovered $6 million from three pharmaceutical companies that misreported the price of prescription drugs for Medicaid patients.

In a statement, Attorney General Jim Hood says agreements were reached with Par Pharmaceutical Inc. and Alpharma USPD Inc. and Purepac Pharmaceutical Co., now known as Actavis MidAtlantic, LLC, and Actavis Elizabeth, LLC, respectively.

In 2005, Hood’s office filed fraud charges against dozens of companies. He previously settled with eight other companies.

The Medicaid program relies on average wholesale prices to calculate reimbursement rates. As a result, the attorney general’s office claimed that the Mississippi Medicaid program ended up paying substantially more for drugs.

Hood says his office has recovered thus far more than $45 million for the Medicaid program involving pharmaceutical companies.