WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is accusing Abbott Laboratories of vastly inflating prices of its drugs as part of a fraudulent billing scheme alleged to have cost government health programs more than $175 million over 10 years.
Abbott bumped up the reported price of the intravenous antibiotic vancomycin as much as 18 times what it charged healthcare providers, knowing that the Medicare and Medicaid programs would reimburse the providers based on the manufacturer's price, according to a whistle-blower lawsuit unsealed Thursday.
