Oh So Quietly, Evidence of Bad Health Care Corporate Leadership Accumulates - Three AstraZeneca Settlements

While the news media is distracted by seemingly more spectacular issues, we hear the steady drip, drip, drip oflegal cases suggesting just how systemically bad the leadership of big health care organizations is.  From February 2015 to now, for example, there have been three cases involving multinational pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.Settlement of Allegations of Kickbacks to Give AZ Drugs Preferred Status in FormulariesFirst, in February 2015, reported in most detail by Ed Silvermanin the Wall Street Journal,AstraZeneca has agreed to pay the federal government $7.9 million to settle allegations the drug maker paid kickbacks to a large pharmacy benefits manager to ensure that its blockbuster Nexium heartburn medication was given thebest status on formularies, which are the list of drugs that received preferred coverage.In exchange for maintaining ' sole and exclusive ' status, AstraZeneca allegedly provided discounts to Medco Health Services, which was bought by Express Scripts, on other drugs, such as Prilosec, another heartburn medication and Toprol, a blood pressure drug.As is usual in such cases, the government allowed the drug company to make the settlement without ever admitting any wrongdoing (and of course begging the question of why the company was willing to pay if it did no wrong):An AstraZeneca spokeswoman sends us a note to say the drug makerdenies the allegations. ' It is in the best interest of the company to resolve these matters and to move forward with...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Management Tags: AstraZeneca bribery deception impunity kickbacks legal settlements Source Type: blogs