Patient Safety Leader Pays $1 Million To Settle CareFusion Kickback Claims

  CareFusion Corp. last year paid $40.1 million to settle allegations that it offered kickbacks to doctors in violation of the False Claims Act. Last week, the Department of Justice announced a settlement with one of the doctors implicated in that case. Dr. Charles Denham agreed to pay the United States $1 million to settle allegations that, under agreements entered into in 2008, Denham received monthly payments from CareFusion while serving as co-chair of the Safe Practices Committee of the National Quality Forum. The government alleged that Denham did not disclose these industry payments and furthermore accepted the money “in exchange for influencing the recommendations of the National Quality Forum” in favor of CareFusion’s product, ChloraPrep. Dr. Denham was a well-known spokesman in the growing patient safety movement, which focuses on curbing medical errors resulting in preventable patient harm or death. In addition to serving as co-chairman of the National Quality Forum—which sets safety guidelines that are widely accepted through the healthcare community—Denham was also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Patient Safety (JPS). Read an article entitled Conflict of Interest, Dr Charles Denham and the Journal of Patient Safety published in JPS in the wake of the DOJ investigation.   Although he was not mentioned at all by name in the CareFusion complaint or the settlement agreement, DOJ's press release alleged that CareFusion specifically viola...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs