Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pharmaceutical Company Warner Chilcott To Pay $125M In Health Care Fraud Case
The Associated Press: Drug Manufacturer Must Pay $125M In Health Care Fraud Case
A federal judge in Boston has ordered the former pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott to pay $125 million to resolve criminal and civil claims in a health care fraud case. U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV imposed the sentence Friday, six months after the company pleaded guilty in connection with a scheme to illegally promote its drugs. Prosecutors alleged that from 2009 to 2013, employees provided payments, meals and other remuneration to doctors to induce them to prescribe Warner Chilcott's drugs. (4/15)
The Columbus Dispatch: Mail-Order Pharmacy Express Scripts Reports Most Drug Losses In Ohio
Among the thousands of prescription-medicine losses reported by Ohio’s health care industry in recent years, you’ll find the occasional hospital, nursing home or pharmacy with multiple thefts or unexplained disappearances of drugs. The incidents at a single site sometimes number in the dozens, or even a couple of hundred. And then there’s Express Scripts, the mail-order pharmacy just beyond Columbus’ western border. It’s in a league of its own. (Sutherly, 4/17)
The Columbus Dispatch: Employees Stealing Drugs From Ohio Pharmacies, Health Care Facilities
Time and again, customers called the Toronto Apothecary to complain after picking up their prescriptions. It was always the same story: Pills were missing from the bottles. Workers figured the customers had to be wrong. Pharmacists insisted they had double-counted the pills. (Sutherly and Zachariah, 4/17)
