Kansas tried to hide an audit of its prescription drug prices

By Nomin Ujiyediin,

Published October 12, 2021 at 4:00 AM CDT

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Kansas taxpayers and state employees could be paying too much for prescription drugs, but a state-commissioned report doesn't actually say if customers got a bargain or got gouged. Kansas even tried to black out large swaths of the audit, but it botched many of the redactions.

Kansas taxpayers and state employees could be paying too much for medications. Kansas blacked out large swaths of a 16-page audit on prescription drug spending in response to a public records request. But the state botched many redactions, leaving much of the concealed text accessible.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen of the Kansas News Service was able to show several lawyers what the state intended to obscure, and those experts said it's likely the redactions were not allowed under state law. The audit itself also leaves many important questions unanswered — namely, whether the state employee health plan gave customers a good deal.

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