NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2009
Kickbacks Keeping Big Pharma Healthy?
Health Giant Omnicare Pays $100 Million Fine, but Admits No Wrongdoing; Medical Fraud a $68B Annual Business
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Play CBS Video Video Omnicare Fraud? Omnicare has had success selling drugs to nursing homes and other facilities, but that success may have come with a dose of dishonesty. As Armen Keteyian reports, Omnicare has denied any wrongdoing.
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The health care giant Omnicare paid the Justice Department a nearly $100 million fine for giving and receiving kickbacks, though Omnicare has admitted no wrongdoing. (CBS)
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Special Report Health Care The latest news and analysis on the continuing battle over Barack Obama's health care reform plans.
CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian has more on a staggering fraud case involving health care giant Omnicare.
When it comes to selling drugs to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities across the country, Omnicare has a prescription for success - a market share in excess of 70 percent and more than $6 billion in sales last year alone.
60 Minutes: Medicare Fraud: A $60 Billion Crime
But that success, it appears, came with a strong dose of dishonesty: Today Omnicare agreed to pay nearly $100 million to settle a series of complaints with the Justice Department for paying and receiving kickbacks.
"We will not tolerate the payments of kickbacks that have an influence and affect the choice of drugs prescribed to patients in nursing homes," said Boston U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks.
According to the government, Omnicare allegedly "solicited and received" kickbacks from health care giant Johnson & Johnson in exchange for "agreeing to recommend that physicians prescribe" the company's anti-psychotic drug Risperdal.
And the government alleged Omnicare solicited and received $8 million in kickbacks from drug manufacturer IVAX in exchange for Omnicare's agreement to purchase $50 million in drugs from IVAX.
"Omnicare is a company that has a lot of ethical problems," said Patrick Burns of the group Taxpayers Against Fraud. "This is not the first it has been nailed for fraud by the U.S. government. It is a repeat player in the fraud game."
Omnicare allegedly also paid kickbacks, in one case shelling out $50 million to two nursing home chains in order to keep the chain's pharmacy business worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
As is typical in these cases, Omnicare denied any wrongdoing. But the company was willing to swallow a nearly $100 million pill to make this headache go away.
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- Payment of fine comes from investors pocket. Collectively we all invest in these corporations sometime directly or evidently indirectly through mutual funds in retirement, insurance etc. Personal responsibility for criminals acts are hardly focused and prosecuted in convoluted justice system. Its 'head' I win and 'tail' you loose situation with corporate America.
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- Payment of fine comes from investors pocket. Collectively we all invest in these corporations sometime directly or evidently indirectly through mutual funds in retirement, insurance etc. Personal responsibility for criminals acts are hardly focused and prosecuted in convoluted justice system. Its 'head' I win and 'tail' you loose situation with corporate America.
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- And to think Senator Hatch and the Republicans want to take away our rights to sue medical device companies. They do not want to fund the FDA and they do not want you to sue when their has been negligence or fraud.
http://www.robertsfight.com - Reply to this comment
- This is nothing compared to the wheeling and dealing that goes on under the name of of CME credits. Big Pharma companies pay megabucks to "medical education" companies tto develop "seminars" for medical personnel that are little more than infomercials for their products. Doctors who are in favor of the product conduct the seminars, but there is rarely an effort to show any balance from doctors who have reason to be wary of it. Then there are the all-expenses paid trips to the Caribbean for 3-4 days of fun in the sun--all in the name of medical education. A company I once worked for held a 4 day trip to the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun for one of these deals. Turned out later that the infant vaccine they had been promoting ended up killing quite a number of kids.
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- Pharmacist whistleblower Bernie Lisitza thanks you for your attention to this important case. For Court filings in the Omnicare settlements, and more information about other qui tam settlements by pharmacist whistleblowers, please visit the reference website www.PharmacyFraudSettlement.com.
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- And so the GOP is fighting reform, openly siding with the drug cartels that have made health care unaffordable.
Once again, the neos reveal their contempt for their fellow man, and fall to their knees in worship of their god, a scrap of paper known as the dollar bill.
Maybe CBS might interview GOP opponents of health care reform, and ask each about their plans to end such clearly illegal collusion.
Let's get them on record as to what they will do about it, then hold them to their answers. - Reply to this comment
- Lets have middle class people be allowed to steal govt. funds & pay back a small % ,if caught-oh wait -they have no lobbyist -too bad...
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- Proof that if you are going to steal steal BIG. Steal enough to pay off those who are supposed to be checking on you. Then hire a lobby firm made up of X Senators and Congress crooks to get you a nice big TAX break. Remember those on top, only deal with those on top. Rich people never have a problem with burned out street lamps. They simple tell the Mayor or Governor at the country club bar, and it is back on that night.
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- $100M fine? Pocket change for an outfit like Omnicare. Price of doing business for them. The more important question is why our lazy, shiftless civil servants don't drag the health care crooks into a criminal court. Instead our prosecutors slap 'em on the wrist, take a few $ from them (in fines... and who knows what else), and then it's back to business as usual. And American taxpayers keep getting the shaft... by the health care bandits and our own government. We're far beyond needing health insurance reform (the crooks within the private sector and government alike will still steal from us) and quickly moving to the point of revolution.
- Reply to this comment
- $100M fine? Pocket change for an outfit like Omnicare. Price of doing business for them. The more important question is why our lazy, shiftless civil servants don't drag the health care crooks into a criminal court. Instead our prosecutors slap 'em on the wrist, take a few $ from them (in fines... and who knows what else), and then it's back to business as usual. And American taxpayers keep getting the shaft... by the health care bandits and our own government. We're far beyond needing health insurance reform (the crooks within the private sector and government alike will still steal from us) and quickly moving to the point of revolution.
- Reply to this comment
President Obama's 
