The Columbus Dispatch
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s plan to recover millions of taxpayer dollars from a company that he says overcharged the state is a welcome milestone in an unfolding story. Dispatch reporters and analysts hired by the state have spent nearly a year establishing that the public was ripped off, and it’s about time to see about recovering some of that money.
Yost said Tuesday that he’ll seek repayment of nearly $16 million in drug rebates that he says pharmacy-benefit manager Optum RX should have passed on to the Bureau of Workers Compensation but instead pocketed. We hope to see similar action on behalf of the Department of Medicaid, which also was overcharged by PBMs and where much bigger sums of public money are involved.
It’s especially encouraging that Yost expects better cooperation from Gov. Mike DeWine’s Medicaid department than he got from former Gov. John Kasich’s administration when, as state auditor last year, he investigated possible profit padding by PBMs working with Medicaid. Greater cooperation and transparency could lead to more and faster progress in stopping abuses.