Coakley
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced a $1 million agreement on Thursday with a workers' compensation billing company that allegedly overcharged the state and a number of towns and cities for prescription drugs.
StoneRiver Pharmacy Solutions Inc. is a billing firm that charges cities and towns for prescription drugs on behalf of pharmacy retail stores. Under the terms of an assurance of discontinuance, StoneRiver will pay nearly $500,000 to governmental subdivisions, including approximately 80 cities and towns, to refund them for alleged overcharges and violations of the False Claims Act.
"Overcharging for prescription drugs harms cities and towns at a time when they are facing great financial pressure to provide much needed services to people," Coakley said. "This case will provide restitution to those communities, and we are determined to prevent overcharges like these from happening in the future."
StoneRiver will also make a separate additional payment of more than $500,000 to the state, put procedures in place to protect against future overcharges and implement a pricing protocol that is compliant with state regulations and laws.
The towns and cities affected the most include Weymouth, which will receive restitution totaling $91,600, and Rehoboth, with restitution of approximately $46,000. Haverhill, Lowell, Fairhaven and Lunenburg will all receive refunds of more than $10,000. The public entities overcharged in the matter will receive an average of approximately $6,000 each.