"I love this story, and I hope it gets more publicity." CFang
Just curious, has anyone heard this story from another media source? NPR did a nice fairly lengthy piece on it, but I've been seeing little else aside from coverage of Charlie Sheen & the Don't-touch-my-junk man
Aren't you forgetting that Rick Scott, the Republican governor-elect of Florida who once was the head of Columbia/HCA, had no idea that his company was bilking the government for many billions? That they kept two sets of books? That they had to pay a $1.7 billion (thats BILLION with a B) fine for Medicare fraud? He just had no idea at all that his company was systematically, over a period of ten years, cheating the taxpayers.
That's for sure. This is one dirty story of thievery and I'll bet it goes alot further than we can even imagine. That money is probably ending up finding a way into the Democrats pockets one way or another, whether by means they deemed legal, or through pure chicanery.
This is too hard trying to be partisan with a straight face, especially when that angelic dog is looking at me.
I have no doubt that the people stuffing money into their pockets are more loyal to their bank accounts than political party.
Of course they have to run as Republicans, because we certainly know there are no thieves, scoundrels or power grubbing low lifes in the Democratic party....
I love this story, and I hope it gets more publicity. If more people know about the huge rewards for reporting drug companies' criminal behavior, maybe we'll get more whistleblowers turning them in.
Interesting that what I think of as the worst crimes, the hospitals giving cardiologists kickbacks to get patients to have unnecessary invasive procedures, and Teva committing clear Medicare fraud, got the lowest fines. That may be just because the fines were per act, and the hospitals and Teva committed fewer (but worse) criminal acts.
It's fascinating the kind of money we're looking at.
Blowing The Whistle On Fraud
These companies paid some of the biggest settlements and judgments to the federal government in fraud cases during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, according to the Justice Department:
Pfizer Inc. paid $669 million plus interest "to resolve claims that the company illegally promoted the drugs Bextra, Geodon, Zyvox and Lyrica for uses not approved by the FDA, and paid kickbacks in connection with its marketing of these and nine other drugs." The total settlement added up to $2.3 billion in damages, fines and forfeitures. Whistle-blowers' share: $106 million
AstraZeneca paid $302 million over claims that it marketed an antipsychotic drug, Seroquel, for uses unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration and not covered by federal and state Medicaid programs. (The company also paid out $218 million to participating states.) Whistle-blowers' share: $45 million
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. paid $192.7 million in two settlements — also primarily over drugs marketed for uses not approved by the FDA and not covered by Medicaid. In total for the settlements, the company paid $495 million in damages, fines and forfeitures. Whistle-blowers' share: $33.5 million
The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and The Christ Hospital, a former member hospital, shelled out $108 million over claims that the hospital gave out kickbacks to cardiologists. "The United States alleged that TCH provided cardiologists with exclusive time at TCH's Heart Station for which their private practices received compensation in exchange for the cardiologists referring patients to TCH for coronary arterial bypass graph procedures and catheter laboratory services." Whistle-blower's share: $23.5 million
Teva Pharmaceuticals paid $100 million "to resolve allegations that Teva knowingly reported inflated drug prices that caused providers to submit inflated claims to the Medicaid program." Whistle-blower's share: $25 million
Source: Justice Department
Has a nice bi-partisan angle, too, since Grassley was involved in the legislation.
To further discussion, two points:
One, this shows the need to hire more Justice Department lawyers and investigators, not succumb to slash and burn spending cuts.
And two, this is why NPR matters. Have we seen this story anywhere else? Is Drudge covering it?
"This administration has made health care fraud a priority," said Tony West, assistant attorney general for the department's civil division. "When you look at health care fraud and the recoveries that we've been able to obtain over the last two years, it's been about $4.6 billion. That's more money recovered in a two-year period than at any other time in history."
