Amerigroup settles Medicaid charges

Health plan Amerigroup Corp. has settled charges that it avoided enrolling pregnant women and sick members for a hefty $225 million. The health plan had allegedly excluded those groups when running a Medicaid health plan in Illinois because such patients would have been more expensive to treat. Originally, a federal judge had ordered the plan to pay $334 million, but Amerigroup managed to settle for $225 million late last month. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to guidelines to prevent such discrimination from happening in the future. This case originally was filed by a whistleblower, former Amerigroup employee Cleveland Tyson. Tyson will get $56.25 million, or one-quarter of the award.

To learn more about the settlement:
- read this Associated Press piece

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