Baxter settles inflated prices lawsuit for $6.8 million
Deerfield-based Baxter Healthcare Corp. Monday settled a three-year-old lawsuit for $6.8 million to address state allegations that Baxter was among several pharmaceutical companies that inflated prices used in setting Medicaid reimbursements.
Baxter said its process relating to Medicaid reimbursement is "transparent" and said it is working to resolve or "vigorously defend" cases that claim wrongdoing.
"There is litigation like this all over the country, several dozen cases, alleging the same thing," said Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Brent Stratton.
This case alleged deceptive practices related to the Average Wholesale Price of numerous prescription drugs. The suit said that drugmakers fraudulently published inflated prices for drugs prescribed to Medicaid patients, which Medicaid programs used to determine the reimbursement amounts. The lawsuit claimed the inflated prices resulted in overpayment of drug costs by the state.
Terms of the settlement cover more than two dozen Baxter drugs.
The Illinois attorney general's office said the money will be used by the state to pay Medicaid bills.
About eight of nearly 50 pharmaceutical companies in the Illinois case have settled for about $26 million.
"We have acted in a responsible, lawful and transparent manner, and are actively resolving or preparing to vigorously defend these cases," said Baxter spokeswoman Deborah Spak.
Spak said that as a manufacturer, Baxter itself does not determine the amount of reimbursement to health care providers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and individual state agencies specify what formulas they use to reimburse health care providers.
Public and private insurers are free to use whatever bench mark they choose in establishing reimbursement for therapies rendered by health care providers to their patients, Spak said.
To date, the state has settled with Bristol-Myers Squibb and its subsidiary Apothecon Inc. for $10 million; TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc, Abbott Laboratories and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. for $1.86 million; and Amgen and Immunex for $7.2 million.
About 40 pharmaceutical companies remain in the Illinois case. No trial date has been set yet, Stratton said.