Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Dr's Getting Kickbacks Should This Be OK??

 

Drug and medical-device companies paid at least $3.5 billion in kickbacks to U.S. physicians during the final five months of last year, according to the most comprehensive accounting so far of the financial ties that some critics say have compromised medical care.
 
The figures come from a new federal government transparency initiative. The 2010 Affordable Care Act included a provision dubbed the Sunshine Act, which requires manufacturers of drugs and medical devices to disclose the payments they make to physicians and teaching hospitals each year for services such as consulting or research. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services compiled the records into a database posted online Tuesday, though the agency said that about 40% of the payment information won't identify the recipients because of data problems.

The push for greater transparency was driven by concerns that doctors' prescribing decisions are tainted by the hundreds of millions of dollars that the physicians collectively receive each year from companies. Supporters expect the transparency initiative to provide useful information to patients about the relationships their doctors have with industry and to curb the influence of payments on medical care.
"The financial relationships between doctors and drug companies and medical-device companies are a source of conflicts of interest," said Allan Coukell, director of the Pew Prescription Project, which has supported the Sunshine Act. "They have the potential to influence the care that patients get and so they're a matter of interest both to individual consumers and to policy makers."

Companies have defended their payments to physicians as necessary to conduct research and communicate how products should be used. "I welcome these disclosures," said John C. Lechleiter, chief executive of drug maker Eli Lilly& Co., which was mandated to report physician payments on its website as part of a 2009 settlement with the government over illegal-marketing allegations.

The payments and so-called transfers of value to an estimated 546,000 doctors and 1,360 teaching hospitals include such items as free meals that company sales representatives bring to physicians' offices, fees paid to doctors to speak about a company's drug to other doctors at restaurants, compensation for clinical trial research and consulting fees.
 
Some doctors have earned tens of thousands of dollars annually from drug companies by flying to various cities to give paid speeches, while some surgeons have received even larger amounts from medical-device makers, partly from royalties on products they helped develop.
 
Ed Silverman and Tom McGinty contributed to this article.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Alpha Diagnostics--Owings Mills Commit Medicare and Medicaid Fraud!

 

The owner of an Owings Mills medical firm is accused of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of more than $7.5 million in a federal indictment unsealed.

Federal prosecutors say Alpha Diagnostics owner Rafael Chikvashvili, 67, of Baltimore created false examination reports, submitted insurance claims for medical procedures that were never performed by licensed physicians, and overbilled Medicare and Medicaid, among other fraudulent acts.

The X-ray company's offices in Owings Mills and Harrisburg, Pa., were raided last October by the FBI.

Chikvashvili directed his employees, who were not doctors, to interpret X-rays, medical tests, ultrasounds and cardiological exams, rather than paying licensed physicians to do the work, the indictment alleged. He also had employees draft fake physicians' examination reports and then he forged doctors' signatures at the bottom of them, it said.

If a caregiver called to question an interpretation, Chikvashvili reassigned the test or examination to a licensed doctor without telling that doctor that his office already had provided an interpretation, the indictment said.

In Medicare and Medicaid insurance claims from at least 1997 until October 2013, Alpha Diagnostics exaggerated the work its technologists did, performed unnecessary services, overcharged for transportation costs and falsely contended that Alpha Diagnostics was being overseen by supervising physicians, the indictment said.

Chikvashvili, who has a doctorate in mathematics but is not a medical doctor, also instructed his employees to mislead people to believe he was a physician when answering the phone, the indictment said.

Ty Kelly, Chikvashvili's attorney, said her client is "disappointed that this is the way the investigation turned out, but not necessarily surprised."

Chikvashvili has cooperated with every request by investigators, she said, and is prepared to defend the charges in court. Kelly declined to elaborate on what the defense would include.

The indictment also seeks a $7.5 million forfeiture, including the company's two properties, luxury vehicles, bank and investment accounts, and a safe-deposit box. FBI agents seized $1 million from the company's bank accounts when the offices were raided last year.

If convicted, Chikvashvili could receive a maximum 10-year sentence in prison for health care fraud, a maximum of five years in prison for each of nine counts of making false statements, and a mandatory two years for two counts of aggravated identity theft.

Medicare Fraud Why is it so Easy to Commit??




Medicare Fraud Again!

DALLAS -- A North Texas physician has been convicted of Medicare fraud in a $3 million billing scam for unnecessary home services since 2006.

Prosecutors say Dr. Joseph Megwa of Arlington was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and three counts of health care fraud. He faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.

Megwa was also convicted of four counts of making false statements related to claims submitted to Medicare. Prosecutors say some home visits or house calls to patients were never made. The doctor faces up to five years in prison for each of those counts.

More than 230 home health agencies were involved with Megwa, but PTM’s Ikhile and Eghobor were the only others indicted in the case. This case affected a multitude of states and other endorsers.

 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently ordered a moratorium on licensing new home health care agencies in Dallas because of fraud concerns.

 

A jury in Dallas also convicted a home health care manager and registered nurse, Ebolose Eghobor of Grand Prairie, of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.


Thursday, September 25, 2014

False Claims Act Enforced With Back Surgeons- Investors


 
Federal probe of doc-owned   distributorship yields False Claims suit



The Justice Department is moving forward with False Claims Act allegations against a company that sells spine implants to hospitals, alleging that the company and its owners made improper payments to surgeons to use the company's medical devices in the procedures they performed.

A complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California against Reliance Medical Systems, a marketer and distributor of spine-implant devices; the three owners of Reliance Medical; and Dr. Aria Sabit, a neurosurgeon who invested in Reliance Medical.

Physician-owned distributors and distributorships, or PODs, sell and distribute medical implants.Hospitals buy the devices and the surgeons who perform procedures using the implants are often owners or investors in the PODs.
 
Over the last few years, these kinds of companies have come under scrutiny. That led the HHS' Office of the Inspector General to last year issue a special fraud alert calling PODs “inherently suspect” under the anti-kickback statute and a report that found hospitals that purchased implants from PODs reported increases in volumes of spinal surgeries.

The lawsuit is considered significant because "it appears to be the first time any of the government's POD investigations have caused the government to file its own (False Claims Act) lawsuit based on the theory" that a physician's return on the investment is a kickback.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Drug Promoting and Marketing Error Costs Shire Pharmaceuticals $56.5 Million

Shire Pharmaceuticals LLC to Pay $56.5 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Relating to Drug Marketing and Promotion Practices
 
 

Pharmaceutical company Shire Pharmaceuticals LLC will pay $56.5 million to settle civil allegations that it violated the False Claims Act as a result of its marketing and promotion of several drugs.Shire, located in Wayne, Pennsylvania, manufactures and sells pharmaceuticals, including Adderall XR, Vyvanse and Daytrana, which are approved for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Pentasa and Lialda, which are approved for the treatment of mild to moderate active ulcerative colitis.

 

“Patients and health care providers must receive accurate information about available prescription drugs so that they can make safe and informed treatment decisions,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Joyce R. Branda for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “The Department of Justice will be vigilant to hold accountable pharmaceutical companies that provide misleading information regarding a drug’s safety or efficacy.”

The settlement resolves allegations that, between January 2004 and December 2007, Shire promoted Adderall XR for certain uses despite a lack of clinical data to support such claims and overstated the efficacy of Adderall XR, particularly relative to other ADHD drugs.  Among the allegedly unsupported claims was that Adderall XR was clinically superior to other ADHD drugs because it would “normalize” its recipients. Shire allegedly stated that its competitors’ products could not achieve similar results, which the government contended was not shown in the clinical data that Shire collected.  Shire also allegedly marketed Adderall XR based on unsupported claims that Adderall XR would prevent poor academic performance, loss of employment, criminal behavior, traffic accidents and sexually transmitted disease.  In addition, Shire allegedly promoted Adderall XR for the treatment of conduct disorder without approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The settlement also resolves allegations that, between February 2007 and September 2010, Shire sales representatives and other agents allegedly made false and misleading statements about the efficacy and “abuseability” of Vyvanse to state Medicaid formulary committees and to individual physicians.

  For example, one Shire medical science liaison allegedly told a state formulary board that Vyvanse “provides less abuse liability” than “every other long-acting release mechanism” on the market. 

Shire also made allegedly unsupported claims that treatment with Vyvanse would prevent car accidents, divorce, arrests and unemployment. 

Finally, the settlement resolves allegations that between January 2006 and June 2010, Shire sales representatives promoted Lialda and Pentasa for off-label uses not approved by the FDA and not covered by federal healthcare programs.  Specifically, the government alleged that Shire promoted Lialda off-label for the prevention of colorectal cancer.

"This settlement represents another important step in our fight against fraud in federally-funded healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid,” said U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon for the Northern District of Illinois.  

The allegations resolved by the settlement arose from a lawsuit filed by Dr. Gerardo Torres, a former Shire executive, and a separate lawsuit filed by Anita Hsieh, Kara Harris and Ian Clark, former Shire sales representatives.  The lawsuits were filed under the False Claims Act’s whistleblower provisions, which permit private parties to sue for false claims on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery.  Torres will receive $5.9 million.   

 

As a result of today’s $56.5 million settlement, the federal government will receive $35,713,965, and state Medicaid programs will receive $20,786,034.  The Medicaid program is funded jointly by the federal and state governments.  In addition, Shire has separately reached agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) on a corporate integrity agreement, which will address the company’s future marketing efforts.

 

 


 



    Whistleblowing for change: Conference highlights


    Workers Compensation Fraud By The Godfather What's Next

    

                           Peyman Heidary is a chiropractor known to call himself “The Godfather.”

    Law enforcement authorities say Heidary is a crime boss beyond his alias, accusing him of masterminding one of the largest insurance fraud cases the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has ever prosecuted.

    Heidary, 44, of Riverside is charged with heading a criminal organization that established medical clinics in Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties and a law firm that submitted thousands of workers’ compensation claims for nonexistent or exaggerated injuries that billed insurance companies for at least $50 million, court records say.

    Investigators from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office and the State Fund had also been able to document a loss of $5 million to the State Fund as of July 23, court documents say.

    District attorney spokesman John Hall said the amount that insurance companies actually paid to Heidary was less than $50 million.

    The criminal complaint filed July 25 in Superior Court in Riverside lists Heidary’s aliases as Brian Heidary, The Godfather and Number One.

    The District Attorney’s Office wouldn’t say how it learned of Heidary’s aliases, but a search of public records showed that Heidary indeed is the No. 1 person in many companies. He is listed as president of California Health Care Management in Corona, Anaheim and La Habra; The Best of California Promotions and Management in Corona, Fullerton and Orange; Heidary Chiropractic in Corona, Fullerton and Anaheim; Doctor’s Reports Inc. in Fullerton and La Habra; California Injury Lawyers in Corona; and California Lawyers Network in Industry.

    Other records show Heidary as past managing member of Riverside Health Clinic, Corona Health Clinic and Santa Ana Health Clinic.

    In Riverside, the Corona/Riverside Health Clinic on Riverwalk Parkway is shuttered. A notice from the landlord, to Riverside Health Care Management, orders the business to vacate. Delivery notices from UPS are stuck to the door.

    Heidary is scheduled to be arraigned today in Superior Court in Riverside. Heidary and three of his employees have been charged with 22 counts each of making fraudulent claims for payment of a health care benefit in excess of $950.

    Heidary and Cary David Abramowitz, 57, of Los Angeles were also charged with practicing medicine without certification. Heidary and Erica Torres, 31, of Riverside were charged with practicing law without a license. Heidary, Abramowitz, Torres, and Michael Angel Tuosto Jr., 62, of Long Beach all were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime. All charges are felonies.

    Heidary is being held in lieu of $1.3 million bond. Abramowitz and Torres, who are scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 23, posted $50,000 bond and were released. Tuosto was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond and isto be arraigned today.

    “Defendant is neither a medical doctor nor an attorney,” district attorney Senior Investigator William Hanley wrote in a court document. The medical clinics’ “main purpose is to milk money out of Workers’ Compensation Insurance Companies,” Hanley added.

    The District Attorney’s Office investigated Heidary along with the State Fund and other state agencies, including the Franchise Tax Board, after State Fund investigators alerted the D.A.’s office to a suspected fraud, Hall said.

    Tuesday, September 23, 2014

    Doctor Treating Non Cancer Patients With Chemotherapy

    Dr_-Farid-Fata-Admits-Administering-Chemotherapy-to-Cancer-Free-Patients

    Dr. Farid Fata, a 49-year-old Michigan cancer specialist, pled guilty on Tuesday to administering medically unnecessary anti-cancer drugs and filing fraudulent Medicare claims. Besides health care fraud (19 counts), Fata’s indictment included conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks (one count), unlawful procurement of naturalization (one count), and money laundering (two counts). Fata pled guilty to 16 out of the 23 counts against him. “It is the most aggravating case of health care fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, “that I have ever seen.” McQuade explained that this case is in an entirely different league than other healthcare fraud cases because patients were not simply billed for either extra or unreceived treatments but that Fata was “using [patients] as commodities in order to make money.”

    According to federal prosecutors, Fata billed Medicare for more than $225 million for the six-year period of August 2007 to July 2013. Fata received as much as $91 million, and netted around $35 million in the fraud scheme. Fata was apparently looking for places to stash the money, including a furnished castle in Adma, Lebanon for $3,000,000. Fata, a native of Lebanon, wrote to his financial advisor in August of 2010 requesting that the advisor “pls get in contact with my dad and go see the house!”

    The 2013 federal indictment accuses Fata of the “deliberate misdiagnosis of patients as having cancer to justify unnecessary cancer treatment” and administering chemotherapy to “end-of-life patients who will not benefit from the treatment.” Fata similarly fabricated other diagnoses such as anemia “to justify unnecessary hematology treatments.” Fata owned Michigan Hematology Oncology (MHO), which serviced about 1,200 patients in several offices within the suburban Detroit area.

    A nurse practitioner who began working for Fata in 2009 told FBI agents that one patient at MHO fell and hit his head, and that Fata said the patient “must receive his chemotherapy before he could be taken to the emergency room.” The patient was taken to the emergency room after his chemotherapy but later died as a result of his head injury. Several civil suits have been filed against Fata. One of those suits alleges the intentional misdiagnosis of 78-year-old Donald Virkus, who was referred to Fata for a case of possible esophageal cancer. His daughter Donna said that a review of his medical file shows Donald did not have cancer but was administered chemotherapy for a period of two years. Because of the chemotherapy, Mr. Virkus developed a blood-related cancer that caused his death. In another suit, Dave Kroff alleges he was prescribed years of unnecessary chemotherapy, of which the immune-suppressing effects caused him to lose both his legs. Attorney Donna MacKenzie, who has filed several of the civil suits against Fata, believes that there were “a number of players who either knew or should have known what was going on.” Along with Fata, the civil suits target other doctors and nurses in Fata’s practice.

    In addition to other doctors and nurses allegedly knowing what was going, a complaint against Fata had been filed in 2010 with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs by an oncology nurse who spent a mere 1.5 hours in one of Fata’s offices. Angela Swantek said that she was offered a job but quickly left the office “disgusted with what I observed.” Said Swantek, “I thought, ‘This is insane.’” Sitting in the parking lot, Swantek “was truly almost in tears just because of what I saw.” The following year, in 2011, investigators notified Swantek that they had found no wrongdoing.

    Many of the people filing civil suits wonder why Fata was not charged with murder. Liz Lupo, whose mother died after being treated by Fata, reasons that if Fata has admitted knowingly administering drugs that are toxic even when needed, let alone not needed, then he should be charged with murder. U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said that the evidence found by investigators was not enough to charge Fata with murder.
    Fata faces sentencing in February of 2015. The government seeks a life-in-prison sentence. The prison sentences he faces according to the crimes he has admitted to are twenty years plus a $5 million fine for money laundering, ten years for health care fraud, and five years plus a $250,000 fine for conspiracy to receive kickbacks.

    Mortgage Fraud Still Happening

    If you thought the bad guys had left the mortgage business for greener pastures, think again. The thieves are still out there, ready to separate you from your money. But at the same time, many of us are still not above stretching the truth a little when we are trying to obtain financing.

    First, the business bad guys, represented today by Amerisave Mortgage Corp., which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered to pay $19.3 million for providing a deceptive bait-and-switch scheme on would-be borrowers.


    


    The CFPB found that the Atlanta-based online company, which lends in all 50 states, lured consumers by advertising misleading interest rates. Then locked them in with costly up-front fees, failed to honor its published rates and illegally overcharged them for affiliated third-party services.

    Here's how it worked, according to the CFPB:

    Since 2011, the company advertised inaccurate rates and terms in online banner ads and searchable rate tables on third-party websites, inducing consumers to pursue a mortgage with Amerisave. Once at Amerisave's website, consumers received quotes based on an 800 FICO score, even when they had previously entered a score well below 800 on the third-party site that led them to Amerisave in the first place.

    The company also required consumers to pay for an appraisal before it would provide a good-faith estimate; then it ordered the appraisal from an affiliated company. Borrowers weren't told that tiny fact until later.

    Then, at closing, Amerisave charged its customers for something called "appraisal validation" reports without disclosing that the service was provided by an affiliated company. They also weren't told the fee was marked up by as much as 900%.

    In its investigation, the CFPB found that Amerisave and its owner, Patrick Markert, pocketed more than $3 million in indirect profit distributions by overcharging unknowing borrowers. The validation reports cost $20, but Amerisave charged $100, with the $80 windfall finding its way to Markert's wallet.

    Thursday, September 18, 2014

    Artificial Sweeteners and Diabetes is There a Link?

    


    Reaching for artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar may be trading one evil for another, a new study suggests. For some people, artificial sweeteners may lead to type 2 diabetes as directly as eating sugar does, according to the research, published Wednesday.

    The benefits and risks of artificial sweeteners have been debated for decades. Some studies show no link to diabetes and others suggest there is one. The new research, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, finds that differences in gut microbes may explain why some people can handle artificial sweeteners just fine while in an unknown percentage of others the sweeteners lead to diabetes. The human digestive system is home to millions of microbes, largely bacteria, that help digest food and may play a role in health. The researchers were quick to note that their work needs to be repeated before it's clear whether artificial sweeteners truly can trigger diabetes.

    Artificial sweeteners cannot be digested, so it was assumed that there would be no way for them to lead to diabetes. Microbes seem to provide the missing link. In a series of experiments in mice and people, the researchers examined the interaction between gut microbes and consumption of the sweeteners aspartame, sucralose and saccharine. Depending on the types of microbes they had in their intestines, some people and mice saw a two- to fourfold increase in blood sugars after consuming the artificial sweeteners for a short time. Over time, high blood sugar levels can lead to diabetes.

    "The magnitude of the differences were not just a few percentages. These were actually very dramatic differences we saw both in the mice and in the human settings," said Eran Segal, a study co-author who is a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute.

    The study involved several parts:

    • A diet study of 400 people found that those who consumed the most artificial sweeteners were more likely to have problems controlling blood sugar.
    • Seven people who did not normally consume artificial sweeteners were followed intensively over a week as they were fed controlled amounts of saccharine. Four of the seven showed significant increases in blood sugar levels.
    • Mice fed the sweetener saccharine saw dramatic increases in their blood sugar levels.
    • Mice with no gut microbes did not see increases in blood sugar levels when they ate artificial sweeteners. Once these bug-free mice were treated with the feces of normal mice that had eaten artificial sweeteners, their blood sugar levels spiked upon eating artificial sweeteners, suggesting that the gut bugs were the driving force in the reaction.
             
    The mouse research in particular was "beautifully performed and elegantly done," said Cathryn Nagler, who researches the connection between gut bugs and food allergies at the University of Chicago and wrote a commentary about the study in Nature. The one piece the study was missing, Nagler said, was an explanation for how different gut bug populations might change someone's ability to process artificial sweeteners. In trying to understand why certain diseases like food allergies and diabetes have been increasing, Nagler said she looks to things that change gut microbes, such as the introduction of antibiotics, changes in diet, Cesarean-section births, the introduction of formula and the elimination of infectious diseases.
    "Now," she said, "I would add artificial sweeteners to this list."

    Wednesday, September 17, 2014

    Whistleblower Advocate Attorney General Eric Holder

    


    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday called for Congress to take steps to help prosecutors build criminal cases against senior Wall Street executives, saying companies often insulated their leaders from responsibility for misconduct.

    Holder made some of his most extensive comments yet on improving the prosecution of white-collar crime. He called on Congress to boost rewards for Wall Street whistleblowers and fund more FBI agents with forensic accounting expertise.

    It has reached multibillion-dollar settlements with institutions including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc, for misrepresenting risks of shoddy mortgage bonds sold before the crisis. But no individuals have faced related charges.

    "When it comes to financial fraud, the department recognizes the value of bringing enforcement actions against individuals, as opposed to simply the companies that employ them," Holder said. But he said prosecutors could not always prove that operations knew about a particular scheme. He said blurred lines of authority often make it hard to name the person responsible for individual business decisions.

    Holder suggested lawmakers consider a rule in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 that requires a single executive to sign accounting forms and bear liability for misrepresentations, and examine whether it could be applied to other areas of corporate wrongdoing.

    "We need not tolerate a system that permits top executives to enjoy all of the rewards of excessively risky activity while bearing none of the responsibility," he said, before an audience that included Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff.

    COOPERATORS

    Also on Wednesday, another top Justice Department official said prosecutors have put individuals at the center of probes into corporate misconduct.

    "If you want full cooperation credit, make your extensive efforts to secure evidence of individual culpability the first thing you talk about when you walk in the door to make your presentation," Marshall Miller, the No. 2 official in the Criminal Division told an audience of lawyers who conduct corporate investigations
    .
    Reuters reported last week that prosecutors in cases of foreign bribery and other white-collar crimes have used more investigative tools such as body wires and search warrants and also improved relationships with counterparts overseas to build stronger cases against individuals.
    Since the financial crisis, prosecutors have stepped up efforts to pursue bankers, traders and others in finance for other types of fraud including insider trading and manipulation of interest rate benchmarks and foreign exchange rates.

    Holder confirmed that the department had obtained undercover cooperators as part of its probe into the manipulation of foreign exchange rates, and expected to bring charges against individuals in financial fraud cases in the "coming months."

    But the law caps rewards for potential whistleblowers in cases that do not involve fraud against government programs and hurts the ability of prosecutors to get Wall Street executives to cooperate, Holder said in his speech. "We should seek to better equip investigators to obtain this often elusive evidence," Holder said.

    In one recent case in which a federal judge ordered Bank of America to pay $1.27 billion for fraud at its Countrywide unit, a whistleblower who served as the government's star witness is entitled to $1.6 million. Holder described that amount as a "paltry sum" for an industry in which the collective bonus pool stood above $26 billion last year and median executive pay was $15 million.

    In addition to cooperators, Holder said prosecuting white-collar crime also requires FBI agents sophisticated enough to know what questions to ask and what to look for when those witnesses do come forward. He called on Congress to consider more resources for the FBI to sustain efforts to investigate financial crime.

    Monday, September 15, 2014

    CVS Does It Again!

    

    Alabama Supreme Court on Friday allowed a class action lawsuit seeking more than $3 billion to go forward against CVS Health Corp and several insurance companies, agreeing with the ruling by a lower court which said the plaintiffs could be certified as a class.
     

    The case dates back to a 1999 class action settlement for $56 million over alleged accounting fraud at MedPartners, a physician and pharmacy benefits management corporation.
     
    CVS Health could not be reached for comment.
     

    MedPartners became Caremark and merged in 2007 with CVS, now known as CVS Health.
    In 2003, Alabama attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of a stockholder John Lauriello, alleging fraudulent insurance information was given in court by MedPartners and its insurers.
    The plaintiffs allege that MedPartners and its insurers hid the fact that unlimited insurance coverage was available at the time of the initial class action in 1998, enabling them to settle for $56 million, instead of $3 billion in stockholder losses, according to court documents.

    Drug Shortages Happening So What's the Solution?

     

    A recent trend in drug shortages resulting from manufacturers “experiencing product quality problems” and a lack of supply chain alternatives. Valerie Jensen, associate director of the FDA’s drug shortage program, announced the agency is temporarily leveraging foreign suppliers to alleviate supply constraint. Could this be one of the reasons why we have had so many problems with medication goof ups lately?
     
    Am I the only one concerned about this? So if I am understanding the facts correctly we are in short supply of some meds-so we are going to trust other countries (possibly with some ties to unsavory political choices?) to supply us with them? Why are we then shipping so many medications to other countries again if it only causes us a shortage? Are we just setting ourselves up to be vulnerable to a terror attack through medications?
     
     
    This is a scary reality they have so many shortages just check it out at : http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/
     
    This is just a small list:
     
                                        
    Generic Name or Active Ingredient Status
      Acetohydroxamic Acid (Lithostat) Tablets Currently in Shortage
      Acetylcysteine Inhalation Solution Resolved
      Amikacin Injection Currently in Shortage
      Aminocaproic Acid Injection Resolved
      Aminophylline Resolved
      Ammonium Chloride Injection Currently in Shortage
      Atracurium Besylate Resolved
      Atropine Sulfate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Barium Sulfate for Suspension Currently in Shortage
      Bumetanide Injection Resolved
      Bupivacaine Hydrochloride (Marcaine, Sensorcaine) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Buprenorphine Hydrochloride Injection Resolved
      Caffeine and Ergotamine Tartrate Tablets Resolved
      Caffeine Anhydrous (125mg/mL); Sodium Benzoate (125mg/mL) Injection12 Currently in Shortage
      Calcium Chloride Injection Resolved
      Calcium Gluconate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Cefazolin Injection Currently in Shortage
      Cefotetan Disodium Injection Currently in Shortage
      Chloramphenicol Sodium Succinate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Chromic Chloride Injection Resolved
      Cidofovir Injection Currently in Shortage
      Citric Acid; Gluconolactone; Magnesium Carbonate Solution (Renacidin) for Irrigation Resolved
      Clindamycin Phosphate (Cleocin) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Clonidine HCL Injection (Duraclon) Currently in Shortage
      Copper Injection Resolved
      Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Daunorubicin Hydrochloride Solution for Injection Currently in Shortage
      Desmopressin Acetate (DDAVP) Injection Resolved
      Dexamethasone Sodium Phosphate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Dexmethylphenidate Hydrochloride (Focalin) Tablet Currently in Shortage
      Dextrose 5% Injection Bags Currently in Shortage
      Dextrose 50% Injection Resolved
      Dihydroergotamine Mesylate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Dipyridamole Injection Resolved
      Disopyramide Phosphate (Norpace) CR Currently in Shortage
      Disopyramide Phosphate (Norpace) CR Resolved
      Dobutamine Hydrochloride Injection Resolved
      Doxorubicin (Adriamycin) Lyophilized Powder Currently in Shortage
      Echothiophate Iodide (Phospholine Iodide) Ophthalmic Kit Resolved
      Ephedrine Sulfate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Epinephrine 1mg/mL (Preservative Free)13 Currently in Shortage
      Epinephrine Injection Currently in Shortage
      Erythrocin Lactobionate Lyophilized Powder for Injection Currently in Shortage
      Ethiodol (Ethiodized Oil) Ampules Currently in Shortage
      Etomidate (Amidate) Injection Resolved
      Famotidine Injection Currently in Shortage
      Fentanyl Citrate (Sublimaze) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Fluorescein Sodium Injection Currently in Shortage
      Furosemide Injection Resolved
      Haloperidol Lactate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Heparin Sodium Injection Currently in Shortage
      Hydromorphone Hydrochloride (Dilaudid) Injection Resolved
      Hydromorphone Hydrochloride (Dilaudid) Tablets Resolved
      Indigo Carmine Injection Currently in Shortage
      Intravenous Fat Emulsion Injection Resolved
      Irrigation Solutions Currently in Shortage
      Isoniazid; Rifampin Capsules Resolved
      Ketorolac Tromethamine Injection Resolved
      Leucovorin Calcium Lyophilized Powder for Injection Currently in Shortage
      Leuprolide Acetate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Levothyroxine Sodium (Levoxyl) Tablets Resolved
      Lidocaine Hydrochloride (Xylocaine) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Liotrix (Thyrolar) Tablets Currently in Shortage
      Lorazepam (Ativan) Injection Resolved
      Magnesium Sulfate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Mannitol (Osmitrol, Resectisol) Injection Resolved
      Mecasermin [rDNA origin] (Increlex) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Memantine Hydrochloride (Namenda) XR Capsules Currently in Shortage
      Methazolamide (Neptazane) Tablets Currently in Shortage
      Methazolamide (Neptazane) Tablets Resolved
      Methyldopate Hydrochloride Injection Currently in Shortage
      Methylin Chewable Tablets Currently in Shortage
      Methylphenidate Hydrochloride ER Capsules/Tablets14 Resolved
      Methylphenidate Hydrochloride Tablets Currently in Shortage
      Methylprednisolone Sodium Succinate Injection Resolved
      Metoclopramide (Reglan) Injection Resolved
      Morphine Sulfate (Astramorph PF, Duramorph, Infumorph) Injection (Preservative Free) Currently in Shortage
      Morphine Sulfate Injection Resolved
      Multi-Vitamin Infusion (Adult and Pediatric) Currently in Shortage
      Nalbuphine Hydrochloride (Nubain) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Neostigmine Methylsulfate Injection Resolved
      Nitroglycerin (Nitronal) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Nitroglycerin in 5% Dextrose Injection Currently in Shortage
      Ondansetron (Zofran) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Oseltamivir Phosphate (Tamiflu) Powder for Oral Suspension Resolved
      Pancuronium Bromide Injection Currently in Shortage
      Papaverine Hydrochloride Injection Currently in Shortage
      Pegvisomant (Somavert) Resolved
      Peritoneal Dialysis Solutions Currently in Shortage
      Phenylephrine Hydrochloride Ophthalmic Solution Currently in Shortage
      Phosphate (Glycophos) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Piperacillin and Tazobactam (Zosyn) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Potassium Acetate Injection, USP 2mEq/mL15 Resolved
      Potassium Chloride Injection Currently in Shortage
      Potassium Phosphate Injection Resolved
      Procainamide HCL Injection Resolved
      Prochlorperazine Injection Currently in Shortage
      Promethazine Injection Resolved
      Ranitidine Hydrochloride (Zantac) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Reserpine Tablets Currently in Shortage
      Rifampin for Injection Resolved
      Secretin Synthetic Human (ChiRhoStim) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Selenium Injection Currently in Shortage
      Sincalide (Kinevac) Lyophilized Powder for Injection Currently in Shortage
      Sodium Chloride 0.9% Injection Bags Currently in Shortage
      Sodium Chloride 23.4% Injection Currently in Shortage
      Sodium Phosphate Injection Currently in Shortage
      Succinylcholine (Anectine, Quelicin) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Sufentanil Citrate (Sufenta) Injection Currently in Shortage
      Sulfamethoxazole (SMX/TMP) (Bactrim) Injection16 Resolved
      Sulfamethoxazole and Trimethoprim (Bactrim) Oral Suspension Currently in Shortage
      Technetium tc99m Exametazime Injection (Ceretec Kit) Currently in Shortage
      Telavancin (Vibativ) Injection Resolved
      Tenecteplase (TNKase) Injection Resolved
      Tesamorelin (Egrifta) Injection Kit Currently in Shortage
      Tetracycline Capsules Resolved
      Thiotepa (Thioplex) for Injection Currently in Shortage
      Ticarcillin Disodium/Clavulanic Potassium (Timentin) Injection17 Resolved
      Tiopronin (Thiola) Currently in Shortage
      Tobramycin Solution for Injection Currently in Shortage
      Trace Elements Currently in Shortage
      Trimipramine Maleate (SURMONTIL) Capsules Currently in Shortage
      Tromethamine (Tham) Injection Resolved
      Verapamil Hydrochloride Injection, USP Currently in Shortage
      Vitamin A Palmitate (Aquasol A) Injection Resolved
      Zinc Injection Currently in Shortage