Legal Settlements to Remind Us How Our Health Care System Became Rigged: by GSK, Novartis, CVS

Amidst the sound and fury of the US election season, almost under the radar sneaklegal settlements demonstrating continuing bad behavior by big health care organizations, and the continuing lack of accountablity of these organizations ' leaders.We note three cases involving unethical practices leading to overuse of pharmaceuticals that appeared in the last two months, in chronological and alphabetical order.GlaxoSmithKline Settles Charges of Bribing Chinese DoctorsA summary fromStat by Ed Silverman on September 30, 2016,GlaxoSmithKline on Friday agreed topay $20 million to settle charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for what authorities calleda pay-to-prescribe scheme in China. In doing so, Glaxo becomes the latest global drug maker to face such accusations as part of a long-running probe by US authorities into companies that paid bribes overseas in order to boost sales of their medicines.The settlement is an outgrowth of the bribery scandal that rocked Glaxo and resulted in a $490 million fine two years ago after a Chinese court found the company guilty of bribing doctors, hospital officials, and other non-governmental personnel. The former head of the Glaxo unit in China also pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges and was given a three-year suspended sentence.As part of the scheme,Glaxo employees allegedly funneled kickbacks through trade groups and travel agencies that planned events. Between 2010 and June 2013, Glaxo spent nearly $225 million on plann...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Management Tags: Abbott bribery CVS deception GlaxoSmithKline impunity kickbacks legal settlements Novartis Omnicare Source Type: blogs