Attorney General Martha Coakley's Office Announces Record $51.6 Million in Recoveries for the Massachusetts Medicaid Program in 2009

BOSTON - Today, Attorney General Martha Coakley's Office announced that recoveries by the office's Medicaid Fraud Division totaled more than $51.6 million during 2009, breaking the previous recovery record, set in 2008, by $4.7 million and marking the third consecutive year of increased recoveries. Approximately $125 million has been returned to the state Medicaid program by the Medicaid Fraud Division during Attorney General Coakley's three years in office. The Medicaid Fraud Division is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of fraud against the state Medicaid program.

Attorney General Coakley's office has established itself nationally as a leader in the fight against fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicaid program. In 2009, a representative from the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Division served as the lead negotiator for multi-state litigation teams that worked with the federal government to secure two of the largest health care fraud settlements in history. The settlements with Eli Lilly & Co. in May of 2009 and Pfizer Inc. in September of 2009 returned over $36 million to the Massachusetts Medicaid program and approximately $3 billion dollars to Medicaid programs nationwide.

"Our office takes very seriously our responsibility to hold accountable those who would defraud our state's Medicaid program," Attorney General Coakley said. "In a program of this magnitude, we recognize how important it is not only to partner with other state and federal agencies to investigate fraud waste and abuse in the Medicaid program, but to be a leader in those efforts. We are very proud of our successes in 2009 and remain committed to rooting out fraud and eliminating waste to ensure healthcare resources are spent appropriately."

In addition to the settlements above, representatives of Attorney General Coakley's Medicaid Fraud Division served on several other multi-state litigation teams that achieved multi-million dollar recoveries for Massachusetts and other state and federal Medicaid programs. For example, Aventis paid $4.25 million in November 2009 to the Massachusetts Medicaid Program as part of a national settlement that returned $95.5 million of federal and state money to Medicaid programs across the country. In October, four pharmaceutical companies, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., UDL Laboratories, Inc., Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals LP and Ortho McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Inc, agreed to pay Massachusetts $3.4 million and to pay $126 million nationally.

Medicaid is a multi-billion dollar joint state and federal program that provides health insurance for the economically disadvantaged. The monies recovered by the Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Division are returned to the Medicaid program.

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