Caremark Suit Gets Noticed

In the meantime, Caremark has started to feel some backlash from its legal problems already. Last week, the Orange County Register reported, a local government agency rejected a contract from Caremark, in part because of the "rash of lawsuits" facing the company.

Similarly, in New York -- a state with no connection to the Medicaid probe -- a county legislator said he was "bothered" by Caremark's legal problems even though he recently voted to do business with the company, anyway, the Times Union of Albany, N.Y., reported.

Meanwhile, back in North Carolina -- a state that's now eligible to join the whistleblower lawsuit -- Rushing is having second thoughts about his own vote in favor of the company. The Medicaid fraud investigation has given him some pause. But a separate whistleblower complaint, accusing Caremark of selling returned blood products, worries him even more.

Rushing says he wouldn't even want his livestock -- let alone his family or neighbors -- to wind up with drugs like that. Thus, he says, he would like to see the commission reconsider its recent Caremark decision so that he can at least vote against the measure even if it passes without him.

"We know about these allegations," he told TheStreet.com on Friday. "What's going to happen when somebody includes Union County in a lawsuit? We can't afford that. ... It scares me to death."

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