Connecticut Medicaid will receive over $1 million as part of a multistate settlement with CVS Pharmacy, Inc., according to a press release from Attorney General William Tong’s office.
The settlement resolves allegations that CVS violated the False Claims Act for a decade, between 2010 and 2020, by billing and dispensing insulin pens to people enrolled in government healthcare plans, including Medicare and Medicaid. CVS supposedly requested reimbursements for premature refills and gave out more insulin pens than patients needed for their prescriptions.
CVS admitted wrongdoing for requesting government health programs pay “substantial amounts” for insulin pen refills that were ineligible for reimbursement, and dispersing more insulin pens than needed to beneficiaries of these healthcare programs.
“Over a decade, CVS over-billed our public healthcare programs for huge quantities of insulin pens, filling refills too early, too often, and too many,” Tong said in the press statement. “In coordination with states across the country and our federal law enforcement partners, we are holding CVS accountable. We will continue to act aggressively to protect taxpayer dollars and the integrity of our healthcare programs.”
In addition to Connecticut, 35 other states and the District of Columbia were involved in the lawsuit. The total settlement is worth $36.5 million, and up to $25 million is allotted to the state’s Medicaid programs; half of that money will go to the states themselves, and the other half will go to the United States federal government.
Connecticut’s Medicaid program will receive $1,098,945.85 through the settlement. Of that money, the state’s only share is $633,913.76. The rest of the money will go to the United States government, per the conditions of the settlement.
This is the second major Connecticut Medicaid fraud settlement in a week.
A few days earlier, on July 2, Tong announced a $700,000 settlement with Trading Spaces ABA LLC, a defunct provider of autism behavioral services, and its owner, Glenroy Patterson. The parties were investigated for allegedly knowingly submitting or “causing the submission” of claims for payment to the Connecticut Medical Assistant Program, which includes the Connecticut Medicaid program, when services were not provided.
“Medicaid fraud steals from taxpayers and threatens care for people who need it most. We will hold anyone who cheats this program accountable,” Tong said in the July 2 press release.
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