The Kentucky attorney general has filed a lawsuit in a state court alleging that McKesson, one of the largest distributors, and First DataBank, which publishes a database for prescription drug prices, conspired to artificially inflate wholesales prices for more than 1,800 brand-name meds and, consequently, cost state taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements. Specifically, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway alleges the companies concocted a scheme in which they “fraudulently inflated” the average wholesale prices published by First DataBank for the drugs, because they knew the Kentucky Medicaid program was required by law to use the inflated prices to calculate reimbursement to pharmacies and other providers.
