Tenet Healthcare agrees to plead guilty in Atlanta kickback scheme, will pay $514 million

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/08/01/tenet-healthcare-agrees-to-plead-guilty-in-atlanta.html

Atlanta Medical Center, previously one of Tenet Healthcare’s Georgia hospitals, was involved in the scheme.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) said Monday that it believes it has reached an agreement in principle with the government to resolve a long-running criminal investigation and civil litigation about a kick-back scandal involving an Atlanta medical clinic and three of the company’s Atlanta-area hospitals.

Dallas-based Tenet said it has agreed to pay $514 million, has agreed to the appointment by the U.S. Department of Justice of a corporate monitor for a period of three years, and has agreed for two wholly owned subsidiaries that previously operated Atlanta Medical Center and North Fulton Hospital to each plead guilty to a single-count indictment. The settlement will be with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia, and the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.

“The agreement in principle contemplates, among other things, payment by the company of $513,788,345, which is comprised of a civil monetary payment of $368,000,000 and a criminal monetary payment of $145,788,345,” Tenet reported Monday.

The company’s two subsidiaries will plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to violate the federal anti-kickback statute and defraud the United States, Tenet reported.

Hospital Chain’s CEO Faces Lawsuit Over Business Practices

http://www.wsj.com/articles/hospital-chains-ceo-faces-lawsuit-over-business-practices-1470021573

Prem Reddy, head of Prime Healthcare, is known for his aggressive turnaround strategies.

Election 2016: Big Pharma’s $70 million tops California campaign contributions

http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_30117115/election-2016-big-pharmas-70-million-tops-california

With Californians facing the busiest ballot in more than a decade, big spenders are poised to make it one of the most expensive election battles in state history — already contributing $185 million to fight over everything from sex, drugs and guns to tobacco and taxes.

The money is piling up on behalf of campaigns for 17 statewide ballot measures — the most since March 2000. And when it comes to big backers, Big Pharma is far and away the towering force.

According to figures released Monday by the nonprofit MapLight, drug companies have already poured $70 million into an effort to fight Proposition 61, which would limit the prices state agencies pay for prescription drugs.

That’s 38 percent of all the money so far invested into the various ballot measures through July 7, the Berkeley-based group reported. Some observers are predicting drug company contributions will top $100 million by Election Day.

“This is their bread and butter,” said Barbara O’Connor, director emeritus of Sacramento State’s Institute for the Study of Politics and Media, who expects the industry will invest as much money as its needs to win.

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The beneficiary of that drug company money, Californians Against the Misleading Rx Measure, says they got an early start on raising campaign cash. “As the other campaigns start kicking into high gear, they will start raising more,” said Kathy Fairbanks, the no campaign’s spokeswoman.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the measure’s sponsor, has raised about $10 million, according to president Michael Weinstein.

“Maybe $100 million can convince people to vote against what is in their own best interest,” said Weinstein. “From our point of view, today, tomorrow or 10 years from now, justice will prevail on drug pricing.”

With tens of millions on hand, drug makers fight state efforts to force down prices

With tens of millions on hand, drug makers fight state efforts to force down prices

Drug makers are sick and tired of coming under attack for high prices.

And they’re spending tens of millions to try to make it stop.

“We’re under unprecedented pressure because there really is profound misunderstanding out there,” Acorda Therapeutics CEO Ron Cohen, who chairs the industry trade group Biotechnology Innovation Organization, told a crowd at BIO’s conference here this week.

“Together we’re going to fight back, and we’re going to win,” Jim Greenwood, the CEO of BIO, said in his keynote address.

Bills that would have required drug companies to justify, explain, or even cap their prices have faltered in about a dozen states in recent months. Last week, however, brought two blows to the industry: Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin Drug signed into law a transparency act that requires drug makers to justify price hikes. Similar legislation passed in the California state Senate.

Meanwhile, the industry is girding for another California fight this November over a ballot measure that seeks to cap some drug prices. A similar measure is in the works in Ohio. And the industry fears such ballot measures could pop up elsewhere.

But drug makers aren’t responding by cutting prices  — or even by keeping them stable.

 

CA Drug Price Relief Act Begins Campaign with 73% Support

http://www.yeson61.com/statewide-poll-shows-strong-support-proposition-61/

STATEWIDE POLL SHOWS STRONG SUPPORT FOR PROPOSITION 61

Yes on Prop 61/Californians for Lower Drug Prices today released the results of a statewide survey that demonstrates strong, across-the-board support for Proposition 61, The California Drug Price Relief Act, a measure to reduce drug prices paid by the State of California.

“We’re pleased that California voters have expressed such strong support for this initiative to cap drug prices,” said Garry South, lead strategist for the Yes on Prop. 61 campaign. “We don’t underestimate the effect of Big Pharma’s $100-million campaign of lies, distortions and self-serving misstatements about Prop. 61, but we start off in a very strong position. We’ll see if voters get as sick and tired of the Pharma ads against 61 as they are of the omnipresent drug-pushing ads that dominate the TV screen.”

Tulchin Research conducted the statewide survey on behalf of Yes on Proposition 61 to assess the prospects of the statewide ballot measure to help reduce the state’s prescription drug costs by requiring the state to purchase drugs from drug companies at the lowest price those companies charge the federal government. The results reveal strong bipartisan support for the measure across the state. The survey finds that nearly three-quarters of voters would vote yes in support of Proposition 61 (73% yes with leaners, 66% without leaners).

Struggling to Stabilize the Exchanges

Struggling to Stabilize the Exchanges

Six years after passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the individual and small-group insurance markets—the markets that the ACA remade—are still having growing pains. Health insurers have endured large losses and a number of ACA-created co-ops and other small insurers have failed. Consolidation among providers and insurers is an increasing and concerning trend. And many insurers are poised to raise premiums substantially for 2017, further stoking frustration with the insurance industry.

Even as the press vilifies insurers, however, the ACA’s supporters can’t afford to be indifferent to their struggles. Private insurers sell the managed care plans that are the central vehicle for expanding access to middle- and lower-income Americans. One day, those plans may cover many of the 11 percent of Americans who remain uninsured.

Part of insurers’ difficulty is that the risk pool in the individual and small-group markets, particularly on the exchanges, is sicker and smaller than originally projected. But the three programs—reinsurance, risk corridors, and risk adjustment—that the ACA’s drafters would hope stabilize premiums in the revamped markets have also not performed as expected. Dashed expectations have led to market instability and to a flurry of lawsuits around the “3Rs.” What does this unpredictable and difficult situation mean for 2017 and for the ACA more generally?

I wish presidential candidates would stop talking about vaccines

I wish presidential candidates would stop talking about vaccines

I get that during elections politicians have to say things to try and curry favor with certain people. But vaccines shouldn’t be part of that pandering. You’re actually hurting the health of America when you do that. I feel like I have to do this every four years, and it’s tiring.