State’s Medicaid program to get $489,399 in settlement

Arkansas’ Medicaid program will receive $489,399 as part of a settlement with the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced Friday.

Arkansas, other states and the federal government reached a $95 million deal to settle allegations that the Ridgefield, Conn.-based drug firm paid kickbacks and improperly marketed the drugs Atrovent, Combivent, Micardis and Aggrenox, McDaniel said.

"This company's illegal marketing practices led to increased, unnecessary costs to Arkansas taxpayers," McDaniel said in a statement.

The settlement resolves the accusations against the pharmaceuticals firm that the company marketed the drugs for a variety of uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, thereby causing false Medicaid claims; and that the company paid kickbacks to health-care workers as an inducement to prescribe the drugs, McDaniel said.

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