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Speaking Point: 1) Every year Medicare fraud caused by individuals, doctors, health care providers, suppliers and corporations (pharma) costs taxpayers a staggering $60 Billion dollars. Speaking Point: 2) President Obama claims that stopping Medicare fraud would help fund his ambitious Healthcare Reform Bill. But instead of individual criminals, what about big pharma, biotech, and medical device companies that induce physicians and pharmacies to use their products and then submit false claims to the State and Federal Governments? Shouldn’t these corporate executives who are incentivized to raid the Medicaid/Medicare program also be prosecuted like individual criminals? Speaking Point: 3) In 2007 Bristol-Myers Squibb settled with the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) for $515 Million for illegal marketing and drug pricing. Already a repeat offender, in 2009 Pfizer settled with the DOJ for 2.3 billion dollars for unapproved uses and kickback claims. Both Bristol-Myers Squibb (Plavix and Pravachol) and Pfizer (Lipitor and Bextra) market billion dollar drugs so are these settlements just a cost of doing business under Medicaid/Medicare? Pfizer has already been fined in previous years. Speaking Point: 4) The HealthCare Reform Bill should change the pharma/physician relationship to examine if physicians are paid speakers or manipulate formulary committees to get their “sponsor’s” drug approved. Speaking Point: 5) Qui Tam (“whistleblower”) attorney, I have lobbied on Capitol Hill for changes in existing legislation and most politicians are shocked when they here the daily routine for a pharma reps and their executives, such as the inducements, off-label marketing, and the deft circumvention of current law. Speaking Point: 6) Should the U.S. Government impose a system similar to the NCAA Death penalty where healthcare companies caught defrauding the system receive a three (3) year ban from Medicaid/Medicare?
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