US WORLDMEDS LLC
The Justice Department announced today that US WorldMeds LLC (USWM) has agreed to pay $17.5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729 et seq., by paying kickbacks to patients and physicians to improperly induce prescriptions of its drugs, Apokyn® and Myobloc®. USWM is a pharmaceutical manufacturer headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.
“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that physicians’ and patients’ selection of medications is not influenced by improper financial considerations,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “The nation’s health care programs and taxpayers deserve health care companies that play by the rules, including the Anti-Kickback Statute.”
When a Medicare beneficiary obtains a prescription drug covered by Medicare Part D, the beneficiary may be required to make a partial payment, which may take the form of a copayment, coinsurance, or a deductible (collectively “copays”). Congress included copay requirements in the Medicare program, in part, to encourage market forces to serve as a check on health care costs, including the prices that pharmaceutical manufacturers can demand for their drugs. Under the Anti-Kickback Statute, a pharmaceutical company is prohibited from offering, directly or indirectly, any remuneration — which includes paying patients’ copay obligations — to induce Medicare patients to purchase the company’s drugs.
Read the entire press release from the Department of Justice by clicking here.
