*** Another Amgen Suit alleges Medicare fraud ***

[Zach]

Seems like the jig is up for 'ol Amgen, DaVita and FMC.



Find this article at:
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/76779897.html
 
Suit alleges Medicare fraud by drug company

By KEN FOUNTAIN

November 29, 2009
Posted: November 27, 2009, 9:58 PM CST   Last updated: November 27, 2009, 10:00 PM CST

The allegations in the lawsuit are shocking.

Salesmen, not doctors, dictated dosages of a widely used anemia drug to bolster the bottom line of a major pharmaceutical firm.

According to the suit filed in a Beaumont federal court, salesmen worked in cahoots with dialysis clinics nationwide to pump the maximum amount of the drug Epogen into the bloodstreams of terminally ill patients - an amount just below the threshold that would raise the suspicion of Medicare auditors.

The drug was paid for by taxpayers, at a cost of between $1,500 and $2,000 per injection.

As part of the scheme, employees of the clinics got vacations, golf outings, dinners and other rewards, the lawsuit alleges.

The players

Ivey Woodard, who once worked as a regional sales manager in Texas for the pharmaceutical firm Amgen Inc., claims in the suit that he and other sales representatives were often allowed by dialysis clinics to act essentially as doctors by dictating the dosages of the anemia drug.

Woodard, who now works as a nurse practitioner in Tennessee, has filed a False Claims Act case. In such a lawsuit, a person files on behalf of the federal government, but the government does not have to intervene in the case.

He accuses Davita Inc. and Fresenius Medical Care, the nation's two leading dialysis clinic companies, of prescribing excessive doses of Epogen in order to bilk the government out of millions of dollars.

A lawyer for Davita said Woodard's charges are "without mert," while a Fresenius said that because the company has not been served with court papers, it is no longer a defendant. But the company still is listed in the suit.

If the government decides to intervene in the lawsuit, Woodard, who would not comment on case when contacted by phone, stands to recover up to 25 percent of whatever damages and penalties are recovered.

That could be a lot of money.

Read more in Saturday's Beaumont Enterprise.

 

[Rerun]

Well, DAH    does ANYONE listen to us??

[nursewratchet]

Ive NEVER heard of anything deciding doses, other than lab results.  There is a tight "window" for Hemoglobin levels.  That is the target, and if it (hemoglobin) gets to high, the dose is either held, or dropped to almost nothing.  If it is too low, it is bumped up. The ranges for lab values are not set by clinics.  At Davita, and most companies I think, out of range labs, wherther too high or too low, are considered a huge no no.  Anyone out of range must have much documentation as too reason why, and a plan of correction.  I can't speak to the rest of the suit, only the dosing part.  That part is crap, at least from all the places I have worked. 
POOLING, by the way, is illegal, against Medicare guidlines, and in every place I have worked, will get you fired on the spot.

[Zach]

POOLING, by the way, is illegal, against Medicare guidlines, and in every place I have worked, will get you fired on the spot.

Pooling of EPO "overfill" has been a well known practice since the mid to late 1990s.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/nov/10/amgen-suit-unveils-industry-overfilling/?print=1

[nursewratchet]

Not here. It will get you fired every time.