King Bureaucracy and its partners in the private sector have become masters at bleeding taxpayers’ dry — a little here, a little there, a little in this pile of red tape, a little for this “service” … the possibilities are endless.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has spent years targeting one such scheme, alleging some pharmacy benefit managers are cheating state agencies out of tens of millions of dollars.

As state auditor, Yost released an audit of the state’s Medicaid program that showed there was not enough transparency to show whether taxpayers were getting what they paid for.

As attorney general, he has filed lawsuits against three pharmacy benefit managers.

In March, he sued Centene, the biggest Medicaid managed-care contractor in the country, accusing it of over billing Medicaid. Centene denies the accusation, but moved the case to federal court.

Yost has sued Express Scripts for allegedly violating its contract with the Ohio Highway Patrol Retirement System. Again the company denies the allegation.

And, Yost has sued OptumRx for allegedly over charging the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation by $16 million. That company, too, denies the allegations.

An Ohio Capital Journal report on Yost’s efforts shows an attorney general keenly aware of the opaque complexity these contractors may be using to hide their skimming from taxpayers.

Should his allegations be borne out in court, they could serve as inspiration to dig much deeper in all facets of state bureaucracy.