Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
U.S. law enforcement officials on Thursday announced what they labeled as the largest ever fraud enforcement action involving elderly Americans in U.S. history, charging more than 200 people and bringing civil actions against dozens more.
The defendants, many of them foreign nationals living outside the United States, are accused of robbing more than one million elderly Americans of more than $1 billion, the officials said.
Read more at VOA News
The rising cost of prescription drugs is not a new story. But as continuing efforts to lower prices have had little effect, states are starting to take matters into their own hands.
The nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) reports that currently “a total of 87 bills in 34 states of all political stripes seek to save money on prescription drugs.” Six of these 34 states want to set up state-based programs selling cheaper Canadian drugs to U.S. patients.
Read more at MultiBriefs: Exclusive
The pharmaceutical giant that misled physicians and patients about the addictive properties of its top-selling drug OxyContin, fuelling an overdose crisis that has devastated communities across North America, will stop marketing opioids to U.S. physicians.
However, the new policy does not extend into Canada.
Purdue Pharma L.P. announced the change in a statement issued on the weekend.
Read more at The Globe and Mail
Every day for the last three years, I’ve started my morning with four prescription pills that cost roughly $11 each. I say “roughly” because the price fluctuates. The last time I filled a 90-day prescription, the full cost was $4,037. Sometimes, a 90-day refill costs hundreds of dollars less. But it’s always expensive enough for one of the pharmacy techs at my local Rite Aid to let out a whistle when I tell them what I need to pick up.
About a year ago, someone I suggested I check out the prices for this drug in Canada. My medicine, which is called Lialda, turns out to cost thousands of dollars less just 500 miles north of D.C. Global Care RX, a Canadian online pharmacy, sells a 90-day supply of Lialda for $710, while Canadian Pharmacy King sells it for $734.
Read more at reason
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together with United States Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General New York region Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert, New York City Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks, New York State Medicaid Inspector General Dennis Rosen and New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo today announced that four doctors are among 34 defendants – 20 individuals and 14 corporations – named in an 878-count indictment that alleges that they participated in a massive scheme to defraud Medicaid, Medicare and other publicly-funded insurance providers of approximately $146 million over three years.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “These defendants allegedly exploited the poorest among us to divert millions of dollars from publicly-funded insurance programs these same vulnerable people rely on. Some of the defendants then used the stolen funds to maintain a lavish lifestyle consisting of multi-million dollar homes, expensive handbags and luxury travel. This massive scheme, which provided no patient care at all, wasted millions of taxpayer dollars dedicated to Medicaid and Medicare, which serve as a lifeline for so many Americans – our families, our friends, our neighbors. I cannot and will not allow this type of corruption and fraud to take place in Brooklyn and will spend every resource to stop it.”
Read more at The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office
While most school districts across the country are cutting back on recess time and ramping up the Ritalin, one Texas school has kindergartners and first graders sitting still and “incredibly attentive.”
What’s their secret? Their recess time has tripled.
Instead of 20 minutes of recess per day, Eagle Mountain Elementary kindergartners and first graders now get an hour, broken up into four 15-minute breaks, in addition to lunchtime.
Their teachers say it’s totally transformed them.
Read more at Return To Now
AstraZeneca Plc is in talks to settle a Texas lawsuit claiming that the company fleeced the state’s Medicaid program by fraudulently marketing one of its top drugs, according to court filings.
Texas sued the drugmaker in 2013, saying AstraZeneca had targeted the state’s Medicaid program by urging doctors to prescribe the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel for unauthorized treatments — particularly for children — over six years.
Read more at Bloomberg
President Trump has selected Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive and a top health official during the George W. Bush administration, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
In announcing that he is nominating Azar to be secretary of the government’s largest civilian department, the president turned to a health policy insider and conservative thinker. Azar spent a decade at Eli Lilly and Co., including five years as president of Lilly USA, its biggest affiliate, before stepping down in January to work as a health-care consultant.
Read more at The Washington Post
New Jersey filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the company that manufactures OxyContin, claiming a “direct link” between the state’s opioid crisis and the firm’s deceptive marketing practices.
State Attorney General Christopher Porrino says the five-count lawsuit against Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma and two of its entities seeks undisclosed monetary damages for fraud and false claims.
Read more at CBC News
CENTRAL TEXAS — McLennan County announced Tuesday it had filed a lawsuit against two dozen of the country’s largest opioid manufacturers and distributors, including Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson.
In the federal complaint obtained by Channel 6, McLennan County Commissioners allege the opioid industry used a marketing scheme to deceive doctors and used front groups to promote opioids as a means of treating chronic pain, while downplaying the risks.
Read more at 13 News Now