The District is part of nationwide settlement for $17 million with KV Pharmaceutical Company on allegations that the company “failed to advise the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that two unapproved products did not qualify for coverage under federal and state health care programs.”
The city’s inspector general made the announcement last month to city officials but posted the news publicly this week.
According to the District Office of the Inspector General, St. Louis-based KV Pharmaceutical, the parent company of now-defunct Ethex Corporation, will pay a total of $17 million to compensate Medicaid and various federal healthcare programs for its conduct. “Ethex is alleged to have submitted false quarterly reports to the government related to a pair of drugs, Nitroglycerin Extended Release Capsules … and Hyoscyamine Sulfate Extended Release Capsules,” the OIG said.
The active ingredients in both capsules have been in products on the market for many years, but in the late 1990s the Food and Drug Administration ruled the drugs were ineligible for
reimbursement by government health care programs such as Medicaid, according to the OIG.
The federal share of the settlement is $10,158,695, and the state Medicaid share is $6,841,305.
