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Monsanto Co., Pfizer Inc. and Solutia Inc. failed to reimburse Medicare for health services provided to individuals who won a $300 million verdict against the companies, the U.S. said in a lawsuit.
The complaint also names insurers American International Group and The Travelers Cos. as defendants. Lawyers representing hundreds of Medicare recipients who won compensation for medical costs while never paying back the government were also sued.
Monsanto, Solutia and Pfizer’s Pharmacia unit agreed to pay $700 million in 2003 to settle lawsuits that alleged toxic chemicals were dumped in and around Anniston, Ala., in the 1970s. The settlement included $300 million to resolve claims from 17,000 Anniston residents, some of whom received Medicare benefits, in a federal suit, court records show.
“Monsanto, Solutia and Pharmacia are required to reimburse the United States for conditional Medicare payments made on behalf of settlement claimants,” the government said in its complaint filed Dec. 1 in federal court in Birmingham, Ala. The insurers are also obligated to repay the government health program, according to the U.S., which is seeking double damages.
Solutia, a chemical maker spun off from St. Louis-based Monsanto in 1997, was sued in 2001 for claims that harmful chemicals polluted creeks and land near Anniston. Monsanto and Pfizer were sued as successor companies.
After the initial cash payment of a settlement trust account under a court-approved process, Monsanto had no control over the funds, said company spokesman Bob Peirce.
“We believe that if Medicare is owed anything, it would be from the plaintiffs’ attorneys who were empowered to distribute the settlement funds and their clients who received the money,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
Chris Loder, a spokesman for New York-based Pfizer, referred calls to Monsanto. Kyle Johnson, a spokesman for St. Louis-based Solutia, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
James Stricker, an attorney with Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman in New York who represented some of the plaintiffs in the original suit, didn’t immediately return a phone call .
AIG spokesman Mark Herr declined to comment. The insurer agreed last year to hand over a stake of almost 80 percent to the U.S. after getting a bailout package that swelled to $182.3 billion. Shane Boyd, a Travelers spokesman, also declined to comment.
The case is U.S. v. Stricker, 09-cv-2423, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham).
