State officials say they terminated the Medicaid prescribing rights of 437 providers who were writing suspicious amounts of prescriptions for painkillers and other drugs under a new system.

State health officials made the announcement Thursday along with Attorney General Pam Bondi in the annual Medicaid fraud report.

The state spent nearly $17 million dollars fighting Medicaid fraud in fiscal year 2011-2012. According to the report, they recouped nearly $50 million dollars.

Florida's Medicaid program is the fourth largest in the nation serving more than 3.3 million recipients.

Bondi says the collaboration with the Agency for Health Care Administration has resulted in tremendous financial recoveries on behalf of taxpayers and promised to ensure that Medicaid dollars go to helping the needy rather than to those who defraud the system.