In September, Sen. Chuck Grassley and fellow senators asked the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services to examine the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) oversight of the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. After the letter, Grassley continued to push for OIG involvement. Grassley learned that CMS knew in 2009 in that EpiPens and two other drugs were misclassified under the program, leading to taxpayer overpayments by hundreds of millions of dollars or more. The OIG confirmed that it will conduct three new reviews of the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Grassley made the following comment on this development.
“The more we learn about the misclassifications, the more we know this program is in dire need of proper oversight. It’s unclear whether CMS took any action between 2009 and now to get the EpiPen classification back on track after being told about the misclassification. If CMS did nothing, that’s a dereliction of duty to the taxpayers. The OIG is right to look at this program and help determine whether it works or doesn’t work as intended.”
-30-