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Legal Updates

U.S. Accuses CVS of Defrauding Medicare over Prescriptions

Jonathan Stempel  |  

NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters)—CVS Health Corp. and its Omnicare unit were sued on Tuesday by the U.S. government, which accused them of fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of drugs without valid prescriptions. The U.S. Department of Justice joined two whistleblower lawsuits accusing Omnicare of failing to obtain new prescriptions from…

LeoWolfert / shutterstock.com

Legal Updates: Tips for Protecting Your Patients’ Health Information

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In the daily shuffle of evaluating patients and focusing on the delivery of high-quality patient care, the importance of protecting patient information may get overlooked. Human error is just one possible way patient information can be compromised. Cybersecurity attacks are becoming more numerous and sophisticated every day, with the number of patient records compromised increasing….

Are Opioid Contracts Helpful or Harmful?

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The opioid epidemic in the U.S. has destroyed thousands of lives and torn families apart. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 130 people in the U.S. die each day from an opioid overdose. From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 died as a result of drug overdoses. In 2017,…

U.S. Supreme Court Tosses Ruling Against Merck on Fosamax Osteoporosis Drug

Andrew Chung  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—On May 20, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a lower court ruling that had revived hundreds of lawsuits accusing Merck & Co. of failing to properly warn patients of debilitating thigh-bone fractures as a result of taking its osteoporosis drug alendronic acid (Fosamax). The nine justices unanimously directed the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit…

Employment Agreement Considerations for a New Practitioner

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You are a new practitioner, ready to begin your first job, one for which you’ve been preparing for years. Your prospective employer gives you an agreement that outlines your compensation, scope of work, requirements and benefits. You are eager to start your new assignment, and you want to sign this document quickly to make your…

Ethics Forum: Patient Safety at Home—What Are Our Legal & Ethical Responsibilities?

Sarah F. Keller, MD, & Marcy B. Bolster, MD  |  

A 60-year-old woman with a six-month history of retroperitoneal fibrosis transfers her care to you. She initially presented with severe bilateral flank pain radiating to the abdomen and chest. A computerized tomography (CT) angiogram of the abdomen demonstrated an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm surrounded by a thick inflammatory rind entangling the left renal vein and…

Kentucky Launches Probe into Drug Overcharges by Pharmacy Benefit Managers

Reuters Staff  |  

(Reuters)—Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear said on Thursday he had launched an investigation into allegations that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) had overcharged state health insurance programs for drugs and discriminated against independent pharmacies. The investigation comes against the backdrop of widespread criticism of rising costs of prescription medicines in the United States, with PBMs, middlemen…

Ohio Accuses UnitedHealth’s OptumRx of Drug Overcharges

Nate Raymond  |  

(Reuters)—Ohio’s attorney general on Monday said he had filed a lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group Inc’s OptumRx unit, saying the pharmacy benefit manager had overcharged the state nearly $16 million for prescription drugs. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s lawsuit followed a probe into the extent pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) like OptumRx had engaged in pricing practices…

U.S. Judge Throws Out Maryland Bid to Protect Obamacare

Lawrence Hurley  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—On Feb. 1, a U.S. judge threw out the state of Maryland’s bid to protect the healthcare law, known as Obamacare, in a ruling that also sidestepped a decision on whether President Donald Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general was lawful. In a win for the Republican president, Baltimore-based U.S. District…