State Medicaid Fraud Claims

The Louisiana and Arkansas Supreme Courts Apply the Brakes to State Medicaid Fraud Claims—Will the Reasoning Extend Beyond Their Respective State Lines?

by Charles P. Blanchard, Chaffe McCall L.L.P., New Orleans, LA

Several Attorneys General throughout the country have aggressively pursued fraudulent marketing claims against pharmaceutical companies under state Medicaid fraud statutes.  The AG’s theory often is that the pharmaceutical company at issue knowingly misrepresented that the drug at issue was safer than other drugs, knew that the state Medicaid program would eventually pay for the drug for Medicaid recipients, and that the state would not have purchased or reimbursed the cost of the drug if it had been aware of the alleged misrepresentations.  As the two cases discussed in this article illustrate, the potential exposure to defendants is enormous.  But the supreme courts of Louisiana and Arkansas have recently reversed huge jury verdicts upon concluding that the state’s Medicaid fraud statute did not apply.

1. Caldwell v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, 2014 La. LEXIS 203 (La. Jan. 28, 2014)

In Caldwell v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, 2014 La. LEXIS 203 (La. Jan. 28, 2014) the Louisiana Attorney General sought statutory penalties and fees against the defendant pharmaceutical companies under Louisiana’s Medical Assistance Programs Integrity Law (MAPIL).

 

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