The government further alleged that PSI worked with Insys to create the “Breakthrough Cancer Pain” fund, to which Insys was the only donor. The United States previously entered into settlement agreements with Insys, Aegerion, and Alexion covering their use of PSI as a conduit to pay their patients’ copays.Īs to Insys, the government alleged that, in late 2013, PSI and Insys began discussing a potential copayment assistance fund for Subsys, a sublingual form of fentanyl, a powerful opioid painkiller, which was approved for the treatment of breakthrough cancer pain in opioid-tolerant patients. These schemes allegedly minimized the possibility that the companies’ contributions to the funds would go to patients taking competing drugs made by other companies and undermined the nature of these contributions as bona fide donations. PSI allegedly worked with these companies to design and operate certain funds that funneled money from the companies to patients taking the specific drugs the companies sold. The government alleged that PSI coordinated with three pharmaceutical manufacturers – Insys, Aegerion, and Alexion – to enable them to pay kickbacks to Medicare patients taking their drugs. “We will continue to pursue this kind of enforcement until the practice disappears.” Lelling of the District of Massachusetts. PSI allegedly operated as a vehicle for specific pharmaceutical companies essentially to pay kickbacks at the ultimate expense of the American taxpayers who support the Medicare program,” said U.S. “Pharmaceutical companies cannot use foundations to funnel drug co-payments disguised as routine charitable donations, all to prop up excessive drug prices. “We will continue to combat unlawful kickback arrangements and their pernicious influence on our health care system.” “The Department is committed to ensuring that foundations are not used as mere conduits to funnel kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to Medicare patients and to increase company profits while avoiding an important cost-control aspect of the Medicare program,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits pharmaceutical companies from offering or paying, directly or indirectly, any remuneration – which includes money or any other thing of value – to induce Medicare patients to purchase the companies’ drugs, and it prohibits third parties, such as copay foundations, from acting as a conduit for such payments. Congress included co-pay requirements in these programs, in part, to encourage market forces to serve as a check on health care costs, including the prices that pharmaceutical manufacturers can demand for their drugs. When a Medicare beneficiary obtains a prescription drug covered by Medicare Part B or Part D, the beneficiary may be required to make a partial payment, which may take the form of a co-payment, co-insurance, or deductible (collectively, copays). The amount of the settlement announced today was determined based on analysis of PSI’s ability to pay after review of its financial condition. (PSI), a foundation based in Midlothian, Virginia, has agreed to pay $3 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by acting as a conduit to enable certain pharmaceutical companies to provide kickbacks to Medicare patients taking the companies’ drugs by paying the patients’ copayments, the Department of Justice announced today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |