Bondi
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, along with the attorneys general of Texas and New York, announced a $70 million settlement on Friday with a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company to resolve allegations of Medicaid fraud.
Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. is alleged to have knowingly set and reported false and inflated prices for medications dispensed by pharmacies and other providers who were then reimbursed by the Florida Medicaid program. Florida's portion of the settlement is $20.2 million.
"Our office is committed to doing everything we can to recover money wrongly taken from our taxpayers through Medicaid fraud," Bondi said.
The lawsuits leading to the settlement were initiated pursuant to the Florida False Claims Act by Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys Inc. Bondi's office subsequently intervened in the lawsuits.
Watson Pharmaceuticals is a global pharmaceutical company that engages in the development, manufacturing, marketing, sale and distribution of brand, generic and biologic pharmaceutical products. The company is headquartered in Parsippany, N.J.