Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
A California jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million US to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s talc-based products like Johnson’s Baby Powder for feminine hygiene.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury’s verdict in favour of California resident Eva Echeverria was the largest yet in lawsuits alleging J&J failed to adequately warn consumers about the cancer risks of its talc-based products.
Read more at CBC News
A medical practice in Tennessee and a pharmacy in Utah are both implicated in a $67 million healthcare fraud investigation.
The alleged kickback scheme involved Marines in the San Diego, California, area who were used to defraud TRICARE, the military’s health insurance provider, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Read more at FierceHealthcare
After being sentenced for participation in a $374 million home heath care fraud scheme, two home health agency owners and a Dallas-area doctor have been denied acquittal.
Jacques Roy, M.C., 59; Cynthia Stiger, 54; and Charity Eleda, 56, were convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Roy was also convicted on eight counts of health care fraud, and Eleda on four counts.
Read more at Home Health Care News
The CMS will give inpatient psychiatric facilities a modest 1% Medicaid reimbursement increase next year of $45 million.
That’s less than half of the 2.2%, $100 million increase in Medicare reimbursement they received this fiscal year.
The agency made the change via a notice rather than a rulemaking on Wednesday, and will not accept comments on the decision. The CMS said rulemaking was unnecessary because the updates don’t reflect any “substantive” changes in policy.
Read more at Modern Health Care
Taking prescription painkillers such as Percocet or Vicodin for more than a few days sharply increases your risk of getting hooked on the drugs, according to a new study just out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers at the University of Arkansas analyzed the health records of about 1.3 million adults who were prescribed opioids between 2006 and 2015.
Results showed that only about one in 20 people who took prescription painkillers for just three days were still on the drugs a year later.
Read more at clickorlando.com
WASHINGTON — More than 400 people have been charged with taking part in health care fraud and opioid scams that totalled $1.3 billion in false billing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday.
Sessions called the collective action the “largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history” and said it indicates that some doctors, nurses and pharmacists “have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients.”
Among those charged are six Michigan doctors accused of a scheme to prescribe unnecessary opioids. A Florida rehab facility is alleged to have recruited addicts with gift cards and visits to strip clubs, leading to $58 million in false treatments and tests.
Read more at thespec.com
AUSTIN – Two Austin psychologists and a Cedar Park patient recruiter have been indicted in part of what is now being called the largest health care fraud enforcement action in Department of Justice history.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, M.D., announced the record-breaking health care fraud enforcement action by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force on Thursday.
Read more at kvue.com
(KMSP) – The Minnesota Attorney General’s office charged seven women with nine counts of theft and racketeering after they allegedly stole about $7.5 million in Medicaid funding.
According to court documents, the alleged ringleader, Lillian Richardson, enlisted family and friends to set up home health care businesses in Minnesota, and collect money for services never rendered.
Read more at fox9.com
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A member of a local politically connected family was convicted Friday of defrauding a nonprofit mental health clinic out of about $1 million for her personal benefit through a pattern of self-dealing when she was its landlord.
Renee Tartaglione was indicted last year and charged with taking $1 million from the Juniata Community Mental Health Clinic between 2007 and 2012, when she was the clinic’s landlord and president of its board of directors. Prosecutors say she charged the clinic exorbitant rent and as president of the board ensured the rent was approved.
Read more at usnews.com
It started with a letter from US Senator Charles Grassley.
In December 2009, the Iowa Republican demanded to know how a Miami psychiatrist was writing more than 96,000 prescriptions for Medicaid patients. It was nearly twice the number of the second highest prescriber in Florida.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Fernando Mendez-Villamil, responded with a tartly worded message of his own. “I never thought I would be faulted for working hard or for being very organized and efficient,” he wrote the senator.
Health-care fraud costs the US government and insurance companies some $100 billion a year in overcharges and other rip offs, according to experts. It is a perpetual drain on the nation’s wealth, undercutting the ability to provide quality healthcare to those most in need.
read more at yahoo.com