Friday, January 7, 2011

Top Ten Healthcare Fraud Settlements of 2010

Came across this in a Sanford Health Compliance Newsletter:

1. GlaxoSmithKline, $750 million for selling contaminated drugs to government health programs.

2. Allergan, $600 million for illegally marketing Botox and for paying kickbacks to prescribing physicians.

3. AstraZeneca, $520 million for illegally marketing Seroquel and for paying kickbacks to prescribing physicians.

4. Novartis Pharmaceuticals, $422.5 million for illegally marketing Trileptal and other drugs and for paying kickbacks to prescribing physicians.

5. Forest Pharmaceuticals, $313 million for paying kickbacks to prescribing physicians.

6. A tie: Roxane Laboratories, $280 million and Dey, Inc., $280 million for fraudulently inflating drug prices through an Average Wholesale Pricing (AWP) methodology ("AWP" has been dubbed as an acronym for "Ain't What's Paid").

7. Elan Corporation, $214.5 million for illegally marketing Zonegran.

8. Abbott Laboratories, Inc., $126.5 million for a similar fraudulent AWP methodology.

9. Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, $108 million for paying kickbacks to physicians for referring cardiac patients to hospitals.

10. Kos Pharmaceuticals, $41 million for illegally marketing Advicor and for paying kickbacks to prescribing physicians.

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