Medicare Advantage Plans Reviewing Options for Pharmaceutical Lawsuits

  In a related case reported in mid-April of this year, Bloomberg News reported that the U.S. Supreme Court left intact a ruling that lets insurers including UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc. sue GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to recoup benefits they pay under the Medicare Advantage program, which covers approximately 13 million people. This is another example for drug and device manufacturers of the subsequent and parallel civil and state liability companies face after settling with the federal government and federal health agencies. Specifically, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by GSK, which argued unsuccessfully that the Medicare Advantage program doesn't give insurers the power to file lawsuits. "The dispute stems from Glaxo's Avandia diabetes drug, a medicine that has been linked to heart attacks and strokes. Glaxo has paid as much as $2.3 billion in settlements with 40,000 people who took Avandia" and "already has paid more than $460 million to settle thousands of lawsuits claiming that Avandia caused personal injury," reported FierceHealthPlayer. A Humana unit is suing GSK, saying that at least several dozen of those people were its Medicare Advantage customers. As Bloomberg explained, "Medicare Advantage is an alternative to standard Medicare, the federal health program that covers the elderly and disabled. Humana receives 66 percent of its revenue and 58 percent of its profit from Medicare Advantage, leading the industry, according to estimates ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs