Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost
Centene agrees to settle Medicaid claims with Ohio, Mississippi for $143 million
In what could be a harbinger of more settlements, Medicaid managed-care contractor Centene on Monday settled potential fraud claims by Ohio and Mississippi for $88.3 million and $55 million, respectively. Ohio is the only state to file suit so far alleging improper double billing through Centene’s pharmacy middlemen. But Mississippi, Kansas, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma and […]
Ohio suits against drug middlemen headed for the long haul
Ohio has been one of the most active states litigating against drug middlemen, whom Attorney General Dave Yost accuses of bilking state agencies out of tens of millions of dollars. Other states also have been active in court against the healthcare giants. Notably, Arkansas last year squared off at the U.S. Supreme Court against the […]
Census data used for Ohio redistricting may get here just in time
Ohio is now set to receive its U.S. Census data necessary to draw new legislative districts in mid-August, giving the state a short amount of time to abide by a redistricting timeline approved by voters. Delays in processing census data — due to the pandemic — have made Ohio officials worry the state would not […]
Vax-A-Million seen as unorthodox, but legal way to promote vaccines in Ohio
New Jersey is offering free beer and New York is offering tickets to Yankee stadium. Ohio, meanwhile, is offering a much bigger incentive to getting the COVID-19 vaccine: $1 million in cold, hard cash. Gov. Mike DeWine’s announcement of a “Vax-A-Million” lottery has turned heads this week, with Ohioans debating the merits of the program […]
Additional corporations reported to be facing states’ drug-middleman probes
More states are investigating more companies regarding their conduct in the multi-billion dollar business of managing drug transactions, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The reporting comes after the Capital Journal in April reported that attorneys general in Ohio, Kansas, Mississippi and Arkansas were investigating health care giant Centene. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has […]
Health care giant acknowledges Ohio suit, says more could come from other states
Healthcare giant acknowledges Ohio suit, says more could come from other states
Two additional states might be eyeing litigation against health care giant
Add Kansas and Arkansas to the list of states that might be considering litigation against the largest Medicaid managed-care contractor in the country. Ohio already is suing St. Louis-based Centene, claiming that the company used layers of middlemen to overbill the state by tens of million of dollars for prescription drugs — allegations Centene adamantly […]
Ohio’s suing a huge Medicaid contractor. Mississippi’s investigating whether to follow suit
Ohio might have started a trend last month when it filed suit against the largest Medicaid contractor in the United States. Now Mississippi is considering litigation of its own. A spokeswoman for Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch didn’t respond to requests for comment last week, but that office told the Daily Journal in Mississippi that […]
Ohio hires Medicaid prescription drug watchdog
As it makes sweeping reforms to the way it handles managed care for the state’s $24 billion Medicaid program, Ohio on Wednesday announced that it had hired a company to monitor its progress. The Department of Medicaid announced that it had hired the Medicaid and Medicare auditing firm Myers and Stauffer to be its pharmacy […]
Conflicting corporate claims at the heart of Ohio’s blockbuster Medicaid suit
Two mega-corporations appear to be claiming they did the same work for Medicaid — Ohio’s $24 billion-a-year program that provides health care to the poorest 25% of state residents. Since the companies received at least $53 million for the work in 2017 alone, the conflicting claims could be a big problem — one with potential […]
Son of murder victim urges legislature to end death penalty quickly
By Jonathan Mann Thomas Knuff, the man who murdered my father, was sentenced to death in 2019. Knuff brutally murdered my father and I live with the pain and grief of that violent loss every single day. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley sought the death penalty for Thomas Knuff and got the conviction. But when […]
Ohio AG: Clear death penalty roadblocks or get rid of it
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost last week used an annual report to draw attention to the fact that 140 people are languishing on death row because Ohio’s death penalty machinery “has grown increasingly time consuming, costly and lethargic.” Yost, a former prosecutor, might be expected to call for ways to speed up executions. But in […]