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Ohio Attorney General Calls for Prescription Drug Middleman to Return Millions

photo of Dave Yost
ANDY CHOW
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Ohio Attorney General with other top state officials at the 2019 AP Legislative Forum.

Ohio’s attorney general says one of the prescription drug middlemen working with the Bureau of Workers Compensation took millions of dollars in overpayments that rightfully belong the state. 

AG Dave Yost says the state’s contract with the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) OptumRx required it to return any savings from drug price cuts to BWC. But Yost says that PBM would wait a month or two before passing along the money – totaling $16 million in almost three years. Yost says the contract also requires mediation before any lawsuits could be filed.

“I don’t know what there is to mediate. They broke the contract. They took our money. I want it back. And we will go to court is mediation is unsuccessful.”

OptumRx said in a statement that reads in part: “We believe these allegations are without merit and are working with the state to resolve the bureau’s concerns.”

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.