COLUMBUS — Ohio is suing a company that managed prescription benefits for the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, seeking to recover nearly $16 million in alleged overcharges for the fund for injured workers.
Attorney General Dave Yost says OptumRx Administrative Services managed drug prescriptions for BWC clients but didn’t provide the contractually arranged discounts on generic drugs between 2015 and 2018. The lawsuit was filed Friday in Franklin County after a deadline passed for OptumRx to respond to a request for mediation.
“It’s been 30 days and we only just now have a meeting scheduled to talk. Times up, give us our money,” Yost was quoted as saying in a release from his office Monday morning.
A message seeking comment was left Monday for a law firm representing OptumRx.
Yost has charged that OptumRx overcharged BWC by more than $15.8 million for generic drugs purchased between Jan. 1, 2015, and last October. Yost says the company’s contract expired then, and BWC now uses a different pharmacy benefit manager.
Such companies, known as PBMs, have faced recent scrutiny in Ohio over their pricing practices, including for charging much more than the amount they reimbursed pharmacists for drugs provided to Medicaid recipients.