Articles Posted in Healthcare Policy

The Governor of Montana, following a line of other politicians over the years, is promoting the idea of that state purchasing drugs for publicly run health care programs from Canada . However, for a number of reasons, such ideas have never gained any traction.

The position of the FDA has been rather clear, Canadian drugs are not US NDC (National Drug Code) products, and therefore are adulterated versions of the drugs they purport to be. Since the source of the drugs is not the US regulatory system, the drugs are “potentially” dangerous. As we pointed out on a previous posts (click: here and here), the actual danger was largely caused by Canadian and US drug officials themselves.

In reality, though, the name brand drugs being used by Canadians are in fact the very same drug as are offered in the United States , only in Canada the drugs are cheaper due not only market forces, but also government price controls. Americans pay more for drugs because the United States does not have any government restrictions on prices. Intellectual property rights in Canada and the US protect the right of one manufacturer to control the price of a name brand drug, therefore the price is what the market will bear; and Americans are generally willing to pay more for their name brand drugs than to allow the government to regulate commerce in the way Canada does.

HHS held a National Summit on Health Care Fraud in late January. The purpose was to bring together “leaders from the public and private sectors to identify and discuss innovative ways to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in the U.S. health care system.” However, groups representing providers who were initially approached about participation are angry at being shut out after being told that the meeting was for law enforcement and insurance company investigators. The providers have a point. If the government truly wants to know about waste in the system, shouldn’t they be seeking input from people in the system? The providers are angry, calling the exclusion a demonstration of government incompetence.
For more, click:here.
To read the transcript of the speech made by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Summit on Health Care Fraud click: here.

By Benson Weintraub, Esq.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (October 25, 2008) My interest in health care fraud originated as a white collar criminal defense lawyer in the federal courts with an abiding commitment to academic excellence, particularly in the criminal justice environment.

But when the proportion of health care fraud cases in which I participated increased so significantly, this did not occur in a vacuum. So, too, was the proliferation of this type of fraud increasing in prosecution at an incalculable rate.

By Benson Weintraub, Esq.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (October 19, 2008) Economic prognosticators theorized a maximization of wealth through a combination of largely unregulated commercial notes and instruments including sub-prime mortgages secured or subject to credit default swaps or government backed securities; irrespective, the taxpayers were ultimately left holding the billion dollar bag while the investment banks and financial institutions profited by a billion-dollar is the federal government’s subsidies and bailout.

The global financial exchanges each sustained similarly devastating losses created by the integral linkage between foreign banks, especially the of Chinese banks and American institutions which ripped through Freddy and Fannie, largely because of a variant of [unregulated] “insurance,” e.g., credit default swaps in which the notes or “policies” were transferred anonymously connecting other holders, these institutions spiral downward when the underlying note is due or ripe for foreclosure.