Hood preparing fight to keep $17M from settlement

JACKSON — Attorney General Jim Hood has asked the federal government to give him until Jan. 30 to file documents supporting Mississippi’s effort to keep $17 million from a settlement with pharmaceutical companies accused of inflating wholesale prices.

Alper Ozinal, spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, tells the Clarion-Ledger the agency had received Hood’s extension request and would work with the state to review the data.

Hood claims the state doesn’t owe anything, because the companies paid the federal government under separate settlements.

CMMS sent a letter to the state Division of Medicaid last month staking a claim on $17 million of the settlement money.