BOSTON — A Massachusetts pharmacy has agreed to pay $340,000 to settle claims over an unauthorized automatic refill program that it billed and received payments for from the state's Medicaid program (MassHealth).
According to the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, PharmaHealth refilled prescription medications that were not explicitly requested by MassHealth recipients.
“We allege that this company’s billing and refill practices were wasteful, unnecessary, and in violation of the law,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. “This settlement provides a payment back to MassHealth and is another example of our efforts to recover funds to the state and taxpayers.”
Pharmacies in Massachusetts are prohibited from automatically refilling prescriptions that are not specifically requested by the MassHealth patient or caregiver at the time of the filling, according to the Attorney General's Office. PharmaHealth allegedly practiced the automatic refill of prescriptions leading to false billing to MassHealth from 2009 to 2013, Healey's office said.