Illinois gets more than $1 million in Kmart prescription fraud settlement

More than $1 million of Kmart’s $32 million settlement for overbilling prescriptions will go to Illinois, according to the Illinois State Police.

Last week, Kmart Corp. agreed to pay $32.3 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that its pharmacies failed to inform the government about club discount programs, and thus were reimbursed more than they were entitled to receive on certain prescriptions. According to an explanation from the Illinois State Police, Kmart would bill the government for a $5 reimbursement from Medicaid for a prescription that cost the customer $4.

“Deceptive practices like this hurt the citizens of Illinois,” said Capt. Brian Ley of the Illinois State Police. “The ISP is committed to protecting the integrity of Illinois’ Medicaid system and will work tirelessly to that end.”

The ISP Medicaid Fraud Control Bureau worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for southern Illinois to investigate the case.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the settlement on Dec. 22. The agreement is part of a larger $59 million resolution involving state Medicaid and insurance claims as well.

On Tuesday, the Illinois State Police announced that Illinois will receive nearly $1.1 million to resolve its overbilling allegations.

This story was originally published January 2, 2018 at 1:03 PM with the headline "Illinois gets more than $1 million in Kmart prescription fraud settlement."