Small Pharmacy Chain Does the Right Thing
October 9, 2008 by nick
With Medicare and Medicaid fraud becoming more and more prevalent it is imperative that whistleblowers like Dan Bieurance and Neil Thompson do the right thing when companies like Walgreens repeatedly over-bill taxpayers. Not all pharmacy chains are as suspect. Take The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company (Stop & Shop), which recently voluntarily reported and returned $269,000 to the Massachusetts Medicaid Program.
From the Press Release:
Stop & Shop…discovered during an audit in 2006 that it had not reported the lowest price it had accepted for certain prescription drug products to MassHealth. By not reporting the lower prices to MassHealth, Stop and Shop was overpaid by $269,000. Massachusetts law requires pharmacies to charge Medicaid no more than the lowest price they are willing to accept from any “payer.” If the pharmacies’ price is lower than the price calculated by the state’s pricing formula, then the state will pay the lowest price.
It is encouraging to see companies self-policing themselves and doing the right thing for their companies and American tax payers. When companies do engage in fraud, either as a mater of practice or oversight, whistleblowers must come forward to do the right thing for them.
