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Nursing Home Abuse
- Is the multistate nursing compact putting our Virginia elders at risk?
- Virginia nursing home supervisor refuses to take blame for abuse
- Beware sweet-talking financial abusers targeting elders in Virginia
- Eye Opening Facts about Virginia Elder Abuse & Neglect
- Questions for suspected cases of Virginia elder abuse / neglect
Firm News
Virginia Nursing Home Administrator embroiled in abuse complaints
Posted on 7/31/2010
More elder abuse scams target vulnerable Virginia citizens
Posted on 7/31/2010
This Memorial Day, Focus on Abuse of Veterans in Nursing Homes
Posted on 5/31/2010
Virginia Beach nursing home with violations will retain govn’t funding
Posted on 4/29/2010
Virginia Beach nursing home may lose Medicare and Medicaid funding
Posted on 3/31/2010
Jury awards senior $7.75 million in nursing home abuse lawsuit
Posted on 2/27/2010
Kickbacks lead to nursing home residents being prescribed drugs
Posted on 1/29/2010
Virginia Beach nurse implicated in nursing home identity theft
Posted on 1/29/2010
Cases of nursing home abuse and neglect may go up over the holiday season
Posted on 11/30/2009
Senators pushing back against DEA narcotics crackdown affecting nursing home residents
Posted on 10/31/2009
Firm Library
Nursing Home Abuse
- Suspect financial elder abuse? Your local Virginia bank teller could be an unexpected ally
- Nursing home abuse and neglect in Virginia – a bigger problem than anyone realizes
- Virginia Elder Abuse: It Can Happen Anywhere
- Fighting for the Rights of Nursing Home Residents: the Healthcare Bill Targets Elder Abuse
- Mandatory Reporting of Virginia Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect
Kickbacks lead to nursing home residents being prescribed drugs
Posted on Jan 29, 2010
The U.S. Attorney in Boston has filed a 34 page complaint against the massive health care company Johnson & Johnson, accusing them of using kickbacks to push the use of their antipsychotic and antibiotic drugs. The charges against J&J stem from two consolidated whistle-blower lawsuits.
According to the complaint, J&J paid millions of dollars to pharmacy giant Omnicare in an effort to boost sales of specific drugs used in nursing homes. J&J believed that Omnicare pharmacists could influence doctors to prescribe the drugs for their nursing home patients, and paid them to do so.
The kickbacks were provided to Omnicare in a variety of forms, including rebates, grants and education funding. Allegedly as a result of the scheme sales of J&J’s antipsychotic drug Risperdal nearly tripled over a five year period, and antibiotic Levaquin jumped in Omnicare market share from 19.2 percent to 66.4 percent.
This isn’t the first time that Omnicare has been in trouble for such a scheme. This past November the Kentucky-based pharmacy agreed to pay $98 million to settle similar allegations brought by the federal government and various states. Omnicare also had to enter into a corporate integrity agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services as part of the settlement.
The prescribing of antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal is controversial, because some nursing homes use it to subdue patients as a form of chemical restraint. It is unknown at this time if the increase in Risperdal prescriptions was partially due to increased use of the drug to chemically control difficult nursing home residents.
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