All three companies claim they're just paying this to avoid further legal issues.
Good Lord! Just how much do they pay their lawyers?
And this is just the latest in a string of fraud cases brought by the Holder Justice Department. Big medicine has been raping the health care consumer for years and somebody is finally going after them.
What's wrong with that?
Three drug companies have agreed to pay $421 million to settle accusations of a "complicated and complex scheme" to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.
According to U.S. Justice Department officials, the firms -- Abbott Laboratories, B. Braun Medical, and Roxane Laboratories -- gave false information to the government about the wholesale prices they were charging to pharmacies and physicians for numerous drug products.
The inflated price reports were up to 20 times higher than the actual costs to customers, said Wifredo Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, where the probe originated.
Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements are based on manufacturers' reports of their average wholesale prices, or AWPs, for covered products.
Tony West, head of the Justice Department's civil division, said AWP reporting is conducted on what amounts to the honor system, with no independent checking of actual prices charged or paid.
He said the practice of inflating AWPs is "widespread in the pharmaceutical industry," adding that AWP is often jokingly interpreted as "ain't what's paid."
Medical News: Drug Firms Settle Medicare Fraud Allegations - in Public Health & Policy, Washington Watch from MedPage Today
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