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…ex-CFO (James Canedo ) of the now-defunct Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., was among those who recently reached a plea agreement with prosecutors for his involvement in a fraud scheme that generated $580 million in false billings…The 15-year-long fraud scheme involved…submitting bills to workers' compensation insurers and the U.S. Department of Labor for spinal surgeries. The surgeries were performed on patients who had been referred by dozens of physicians, chiropractors and others who were paid illegal kickbacks…More than $580 million in bills were fraudulently submitted by Pacific Hospital during the last eight years of the scheme alone. [California Pharmacy Management and its successor, Industrial Pharmacy Management, were also important players in the scheme. Both companies set up and managed what were essentially mini-pharmacies within doctors’ offices.]

European Medicines Agency has published a good practice guide on medication errors to improve the reporting, evaluation and prevention of medication errors by regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical industry throughout the EU…The…guide on medication errors published today complements the guideline on good pharmacovigilance practices…It consists of two parts:

• details how suspected adverse reactions that are caused by medication errors should be recorded, coded, reported and assessed. The goal is to improve reporting and to learn from medication errors for the benefit of public health.
• clarifies key principles of risk management planning in relation to medication errors. It describes the main sources and types of medication errors and proposes options to minimise the risk of medication errors throughout the lifespan of a medicine.

Pfizer's record-setting proposed purchase of Allergan for about $160 billion will not only be the biggest health-care sector deal ever, it will also be one of the largest tax inversions in recent history…Tax inversions...are frowned upon by politicians and the Treasury Department. But efforts to penalize companies for making such deals seem to be falling flat…Tax inversions are a better deal for companies that already have substantial sales abroad, or (like pharmaceuticals) rely on high-margin businesses based on intellectual property…while inversions have continued at an unusually high rate, overall merger and acquisition activity has been slowing…By value, U.S. inversion deals accounted for about 4 percent of global M&A activity in 2014 and 2015 — up from 2 percent or less in the three years before that…It remains to be seen whether Treasury Department rules meant to prevent tax inversions will have an impact. The regulations do not apply to the Pfizer deal, which will result in a company with about 56 percent ownership in the U.S. — the rules only apply to companies with 60 percent or higher.

Everyday Health, Inc., a…provider of digital health marketing and communications solutions, and Videology, a…software provider for converged TV and video advertising…announced the launch of TVRx, a solution for pharmaceutical and health-oriented marketers to target relevant health audiences across television and digital video. The…partnership combines Everyday Health's…audience reach and analytics…with Videology's…platform for planning, executing and measuring video campaigns across any screen…"Television remains a staple for advertisers in the health vertical. However, as the industry focuses on smaller patient populations and consumer viewing fragments across multiple screens, the ability to reach the right audiences with relevant messaging has become more difficult,"…"TVRx addresses this challenge by enabling advertisers to find the right audience - regardless of viewing screen - and achieve a desired marketing outcome…"TVRx takes everything that is great about TV and incorporates the enhanced targeting and measurement capabilities of digital, to provide the most sophisticated targeting and ROI measurement across both linear TV and digital video.

Executives with Arizona's nonprofit health insurance co-op said Tuesday that they have failed to come up with additional financial backing and the insurer plans to shut down all operations Dec. 31…The announcement by Meritus Health Partners means 59,000 Arizonans it now covers need to find a new insurer by Dec. 15…The decision comes nearly a month after the state Department of Insurance suspended its right to sell new policies or renew current ones and placed it under formal supervision… The nonprofit was one of 23 co-ops created under the Affordable Care Act to provide competition to for-profit insurers, but many have struggled and more than half have now failed or will close by the end of the year.

You may need a thick skin to withstand the rising cost of some dermatology medicines…A new study finds that prices of some widely prescribed creams and pills for skin conditions rose rapidly between 2009 and 2015. Of the 19 brand-name medicines analyzed, the retail prices of seven more than quadrupled…Prices for some generic drugs also rose considerably. Between 2011 and 2014, there was a mean increase of 279 percent, although prices for a few drugs remained largely unchanged…“The prices have skyrocketed with no justification,”…“This is a manifestation of anarchy pricing, which is what you get when you don’t have a competitive free market or competent government actions to protect patients,”...

After weeks of criticism from patients, doctors and other drugmakers for hiking a life-saving medicine to more than 50 times its former price, Turing Pharmaceuticals is reneging on its pledge to cut the $750-per-pill price…the…company is reducing what it charges hospitals, by up to 50 percent, for…Daraprim (pyrimethamine). Most patients’ co-payments will be capped at $10 or less a month. But insurers will be stuck with the bulk of the $750 tab. That drives up future treatment and insurance costs…Daraprim…patent expired decades ago. It is the preferred treatment for…toxoplasmosis, which mainly threatens people with weak immune systems…Carlos del Rio, chairman of the HIV Medicine Association, called Turing’s changes “just window dressing.”…Turing’s move comes after a pharmacy that compounds prescription drugs for individual patients, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, started selling a custom-made version for 99 cents per capsule…Del Rio noted that while hospitals treat many patients initially, most are then treated at home for a couple of months, so the lower hospital price doesn’t help…Imprimis chief executive…said…that orders are pouring in for its version of Daraprim from doctors, and the company has dispensed more than 2,500 capsules since Oct. 22.

Bryan Ziegler, PharmD, executive director of Kennedy Pharmacy Innovation Center, provides some resources for community pharmacists to use when implementing new collaborative services with primary care providers.

Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program highlights the latest in pharmacy news, product news, and more. (video)

Hospitals have worse outcomes on weekends and holidays — but it's not clear why…The effect that weekends and holidays can have on patient care remains contentious, despite extensive research on the subject…Some studies have found that patients with a variety of health conditions tend to face a slightly greater risk of death if they're admitted to a hospital during the weekend instead of during the week. But the evidence here remains mixed…hospital care is different during holidays and weekends, and perhaps slightly lower quality. The health professionals who get stuck working these hours tend have less seniority and experience. And the staffing might be thinner. That might explain the poorer health outcomes…which can cause delays and hassles for patients and doctors…those with less urgent problems end up waiting a lot longer. It also makes doctors' jobs more difficult.