#medprocom

Dive Brief: The Senate voted 94-5 on Wednesday to pass the 21st Century Cures Act. The legislative package will now head to President Obama’s desk, who is expected to sign the bill into law. Over the course of 10 years, the Cures bill authorizes the National Institutes of Health to spend $4.8 billion toward funding…

An Iowa dental office chain has settled a whistleblower lawsuit alleging Medicaid fraud. The Des Moines Register reports  that Lifepoint Dental Partners, which has five clinics in Iowa, agreed to pay $300,000 to settle the lawsuit filed in April by federal prosecutors and the company’s former chief financial officer, Todd Willson, and a former financial…

UPDATE: A ruling is expected to be issued on November 22, National Law Review reported. Another hearing trial could be set on November 28 if the motion is denied, NLR reported. This doesn’t leave much time to wait out whether the rule will stay in place or not. Thus, it’d be best to prep a…

With its economic stimulus funds dwindling, the out-going Obama administration is still backing health information exchanges meant to spur better patient care. Using leftover money from a $2 billion appropriation, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS awarded grants totaling nearly $2.4 million to four state HIEs. The Delaware Health…

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday that Medicare has “serious problems” that would need to be addressed when Congress moves to repeal and replace President Obama’s health-care reform law — a signal that he is willing to immediately enter the treacherous politics of entitlement reform and perhaps break with President-elect Donald Trump. “When Obamacare…

A mother and son based in Miami were sentenced today to 120 months and 30 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in spearheading a $9.5 million health care fraud conspiracy that targeted Medicare Part D. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the…

A group of senators wants to know if Mylan Pharmaceuticals will refund $50 million for charging the Department of Defense “exorbitant rates” at retail pharmacies for the EpiPen emergency allergy device. Their demand followed a Reuters report last week that Pentagon spending on EpiPen rose to $57 million over the past year from $9 million in 2008.…

Federal investigators are looking into Express Scripts’ dealings with pharma companies, charitable foundations and specialty pharmacies. The nation’s largest pharmacy benefit manager on Tuesday revealed it received a civil investigative demand in August from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York asking for information about the firm’s relationships with drug makers and…