GlaxoSmithKline to pay $3B for health fraud

GlaxoSmithKline to pay $3B for health fraud

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion in fines—the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history—for criminal and civil violations involving 10 drugs that are taken by millions of people.

CVS to pay $17.5M over inflated Medicaid claims

CVS to pay $17.5M over inflated Medicaid claims

CVS Pharmacy, the pharmacy division of CVS Caremark Corp., will pay $17.5 million to the United States and 10 states to settle False Claims Act accusations, the Department of Justice announced late Friday afternoon.

Drugmakers top list of DOJ fraud settlements

In the 1990s, the pharmaceutical industry repeatedly was named the most profitable industry in the world. More than a decade later, the industry tops a more dubious list: the No. 1 source of fraud-related settlements with the Department of Justice, an advocacy group says.

Drugmakers top list of DOJ fraud settlements

5 Fraud, Abuse Laws Med Students Should Know

5 Fraud, Abuse Laws Med Students Should Know

More than half of U.S. medical schools don't provide any instruction on federal fraud and abuse laws, according to a report from the Office of Inspector General.

Illinois Medicaid Fraud Case

Illinois Medicaid Fraud Case

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights®) announces the unsealing of the first Medicaid Fraud case for prescribing psychiatric drugs to children and youth by someone other than PsychRights using PsychRights’ model Qui Tam Complaint.

Medicating Children: A “Whistleblower’s” Lawsuit Raises a Novel Legal Question

In the past few years, a number of pharmaceutical companies have admitted to federal charges that they illegally marketed psychiatric medications for non-approved uses, with the companies paying large sums to settle the cases. Now, a legal complaint filed by the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights in an Alaskan federal court is raising a related question. When healthcare providers bill Medicaid for prescriptions of psychiatric drugs to children for non-approved uses, are they committing Medicaid fraud?

Medicating Children: A “Whistleblower’s” Lawsuit Raises a Novel Legal Question

Controversial Miami psychiatrist dropped from Medicaid program

State healthcare regulators have booted from the state Medicaid program a Miami psychiatrist who had prescribed a cocktail of potent mental health drugs to an autistic, 12-year-old boy who later died of complications from over-medication.

Controversial Miami psychiatrist dropped from Medicaid program

Alaska psychiatrists accused of wrongly medicating children

Alaska psychiatrists accused of wrongly medicating children

An Alaska mental health advocacy group that has spent years battling the pharmaceutical industry over medication is suing more than a dozen Alaska child psychiatrists, saying the doctors unnecessarily drugged children and committed Medicaid fraud.

Denver boy, 9, died after state-benefits error denied him meds

A Montbello mother says her 9-year-old son's death from severe asthma could have been prevented had Denver Human Services resolved problems with his Medicaid pharmacy benefits.

More >> Denver boy, 9, died after state-benefits error denied him meds

PsychRights whistleblower lawsuit against psychiatrists unsealed: Defendents listed

A major Medicaid Fraud lawsuit by Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights®) against psychiatrists, their employers, pharmacies, state officials, and a medical education-publishing company for their roles in fraudulent claims to Medicaid to drug mainly disadvantaged children and youth was unsealed, revealing a long list of defendants.

More >> PsychRights whistleblower lawsuit against psychiatrists unsealed: Defendents listed

AstraZeneca 'suppressed' drug test data

The marketing team sued over a drug's alleged side effects tried to suppress key data, an ex-employee has claimed.

More >> AstraZeneca 'suppressed' drug test data

Mass. doctor accused of fraud by faking research

Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that they have filed a health care fraud charge against a doctor accused of faking research for a dozen years in published studies that suggested after-surgery benefits from painkillers including Vioxx and Celebrex.

More >> Mass. doctor accused of fraud by faking research

Medicaid and Antipsychotic Drugs for Children: Poverty at Work?

According to research discussed in the New York Times this morning, children whose family poverty makes them eligible for Medicaid are four times as likely to be given antipsychotic drugs than children whose families have private health insurance, and the drugs are more likely to be given to the Medicaid children for less severe mental and behavioral conditions (Wilson,D.[2009, Dec. 12]. Poor children likelier to get antipsychotics. New York Times, p. A1, p. A11). Concerns about this are related to the known potential side effects of such drugs, including serious weight gain and metabolic changes which do not disappear when the medication is stopped. Because of these worries, a group of state Medicaid directors has started a project called "Too Many, Too Much, Too Young" (sorry, I cannot find any web site discussing this project; can readers help?).

More >> Medicaid and Antipsychotic Drugs for Children: Poverty at Work?

Medicaid children take more antipsychotics

Riddle me this: Why would children covered by Medicaid get antipsychotic drugs four times more often than children covered by private insurance? And why would the Medicaid kids often get those drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts did? The New York Times poses these questions today after federally funded research discovered the imbalance.


More >> Medicaid children take more antipsychotics

Why Are We Drugging Our Kids?

PsychRights now has a national "Medicaid Fraud Initiative Against Psychiatric Drugging of Children & Youth," designed to address this problem by "having lawsuits brought against the doctors prescribing these harmful, ineffective drugs, their employers, and the pharmacies filling these prescriptions and submitting them to Medicaid for reimbursement," according to its web site.

More >> Why Are We Drugging Our Kids?