Sen. Chuck Grassley is concerned about high prescription drug costs and is looking into the misclassification of certain drugs under the Medicaid Prescription Drug Program. He made the following comment on the Justice Department’s prosecution of the price fixing of generic drugs and the lack of responsiveness from the Obama Administration on mis-classification concerns.
“The Justice Department deserves credit for bringing a case over the price fixing of generic drugs. Consumers pay the price for criminal conduct, and the Justice Department is doing its job to protect the public from such conduct. Still, it’s disturbing that the Justice Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services refused to testify at a hearing I set last fall on drug pricing concerns. The Obama Administration has been largely unresponsive to my inquiries about the misclassifications under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program that likely have cost the taxpayers and states hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments. Has the Administration taken any action to recover this money for the taxpayers and states? We don’t know because the Administration refuses to say. I intend to continue to pursue answers and all due refunds for the taxpayers. If the Obama Administration won’t answer these questions, maybe the incoming administration will.”
