# AstraZeneca Pays Texas $34M Over Medicaid Kickbacks | Houston News Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/houston-news-today-2-min-news-the-daily-news-now-7458112/astrazeneca-pays-texas-34m-over-medicaid-kickbacks-houston-news Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/houston-news-today-2-min-news-the-daily-news-now-7458112/astrazeneca-pays-texas-34m-over-medicaid-kickbacks-houston-news.md Podcast: [Houston News Today | 2 Min News | The Daily News Now!](https://stenobird.com/podcast/houston-news-today-2-min-news-the-daily-news-now-7458112) Published: 2026-06-29T23:11:47+00:00 Episode link: https://api.fastcast.ai/audio/f805c3bd-bf77-4246-9277-0762e42d46a2.mp3 Audio file: https://api.fastcast.ai/audio/f805c3bd-bf77-4246-9277-0762e42d46a2.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/houston-news-today-2-min-news-the-daily-news-now-7458112/episodes/astrazeneca-pays-texas-34m-over-medicaid-kickbacks-houston-news Duration seconds: 81 ## Resource AstraZeneca is paying nearly $34 million to Texas to settle allegations it ran a kickback scheme targeting Medicaid by offering free nursing services and other perks to sway doctors into prescribing its drugs — all while taxpayers footed the bill. This marks part of Texas’s aggressive push against pharmaceutical fraud, with similar lawsuits already filed against other major drugmakers accused of bribing providers to push profitable medications. The settlement avoids trial and sends a clear message: taxpayer dollars won’t be used to fund unethical sales tactics. Support the show: Get a discount at https://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN: advertise@thednn.ai This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting. Report issues to feedback@thednn.ai. View sources & latest updates: https://sources.thednn.ai/fc6de073e3c6e6ca ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/houston-news-today-2-min-news-the-daily-news-now-7458112/episodes/astrazeneca-pays-texas-34m-over-medicaid-kickbacks-houston-news/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/houston-news-today-2-min-news-the-daily-news-now-7458112/astrazeneca-pays-texas-34m-over-medicaid-kickbacks-houston-news.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.