FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MONTGOMERY, AL -- Alabama Medicaid Commissioner Carol Steckel, chair of the Executive Committee of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NASMD), has issued a "national alert" memo to all state Medicaid agencies on the drug-pricing fraud cases filed in Alabama by Attorney General Troy King. Steckel is urging all of her fellow Medicaid directors to follow the Alabama cases for their nationwide impact on prescription drug prices.

Steckel has asked her peers to join her on a Task Force on Drug-Pricing Fraud Prevention. "This will give us all an opportunity to coordinate our efforts. In addition, I believe it is vitally important that Congress and our state legislatures understand the various issues we are facing when it comes to pharmaceutical prices," Commissioner Steckel said.

Alabama's Medicaid agency has been awarded $274 million in fraud damages by juries against drug manufacturers in three cases to date in Montgomery County Circuit Court. A fourth trial is scheduled for October 27. More than 60 additional cases are pending settlement or trial.

ATTACHED: Memo to NASMD Members
ALSO: Official Press Release

Robin D. Rawls, M.B.A.
Director, Communications and Health Promotion
Alabama Medicaid Agency
robin.rawls@medicaid.alabama.gov
(334) 353-9363