News Briefs: Cigna settles $27.6 million PBM lawsuit with Kansas | Dec. 9, 2021
Centene Corp. will pay the state of Kansas $27.6 million, the fifth such settlement reached between the insurer and state Medicaid programs. More than a dozen states have sued the health insurer, accusing Centene of mismanaging their Medicaid programs’ pharmacy benefits. The insurer has paid out $214 million in settlements with Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio out of the $1.25 billion it set aside earlier this year to settle such suits. According to a press release from the office of Republican Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, “In the settlement, Centene guarantees that it will improve transparency by providing the state with access to all data necessary to track pharmaceutical transactions, from the point of sale through reimbursement.” Centene is in the process of consolidating its $30 billion in pharmacy spend and hopes to bid out that business to one vendor in 2022.
