The Texas Attorney General as well as several other state attorney general offices are working with Medicaid Marketing Fraud Whistleblowers and have begun enforcing new Medicaid fraud whistleblower recovery laws.  Through these new laws and with information provided by Medicaid fraud whistleblowers, Texas and other states are making large recoveries from drug companies, pharmacies, and other health care providers that have been systematically defrauding state Medicaid programs.

If you are aware of Medicaid marketing fraud, Medicaid drug fraud, Medicaid drug formulary fraud, and Medicaid  illegal drug kickbacks, please feel free to contact Drug Medicaid Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer and Pharmacy Medicaid Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer Jason Coomer via e-mail message or use our submission form about a potential Medicaid marketing fraud whistleblower lawsuit, drug Medicaid kickback lawsuit, or other Medicaid fraud whistleblower reward lawsuit.

The Federal Government and Several States Including Texas Are Making Large Recoveries Through Medicaid Drug Marketing Fraud Whistleblower Lawsuits and Medicaid Drug Price Fraud Whistleblower Lawsuits

In January 2012, the State of Texas and a Medicaid drug marketing fraud  whistleblower squared off against Johnson and Johnson, Inc. and several related companies in Travis County District Court.  In the case, the State of Texas alleged that the large drug company systematically targeted the Texas Medicaid System and fraudulently misrepresented their drug, Risperdal, with false and misleading marketing information.  Further, that the defendants intentionally targeted opinion leaders in the medical community with financial incentives and misleading information in an effort to have the drug placed into treatment guidelines, model state treatment programs, formularies, Texas Vendor Drug Programs, and the Texas Medicaid preferred drug lists.

Attorneys for the State of Texas and Medicaid Marketing Fraud Whistleblower argued that they had reviewed millions of documents and could prove that the large drug company intentionally pushed Risperdal as a safer alternative to the typical medications despite rulings from the Food and Drug Administration that these assertions were not supported by scientific research.  Further, that the defendants orchestrated a fraudulent marketing scheme to seed medical literature with misleading information and influence key medical decision makers to increase Risperdal in the Texas Medicaid Program as well as used this information to push their drug as the established treatment in state Medicaid programs throughout the United States as well as in the Federal Medicare program.

As a result of this Texas lawsuit, the drug maker, Johnson and Johnson, Inc., agreed to settle the Texas Medicaid fraud case for $158 million.  Johnson and Johnson, Inc. has also agreed to a settlement where the drug company will will pay more than $1 billion in civil and criminal penalties to the federal government and individual states to settle an investigation into the marketing practices of its anti-psychotic drug Risperdal.  Johnson and Johnson, Inc. has also been hit in Medicaid fraud cases in South Carolina and Louisiana and was ordered to pay more than $250 million each.

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In a recent Medicaid Drug Fraud Whistleblower lawsuit, the Texas Attorney General Office argued that Johnson and Johnson, Inc. fraudulently manipulated the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) in order to establish their drug as the standard of care in the medical industry included getting the drug placed on Medicaid Preferred Drug Lists, Hospital Formularies, and other standards of care.  TMAP is a decision-tree medical algorithm that was designed as a basis for psychiatric management guidelines for doctors treating certain mental disorders within Texas' publicly-funded mental health care system, along with manuals relating to each of them.  By fraudulently manipulating the Texas Medication Algorithm Project, drug companies can push their drug as the established treatment and reap huge profits from state Medicaid programs, Medicare, and insurance policies.

These fraudulent Medicaid drug marketing schemes can be extremely hard to identify as the drug manufacturers typically have large and sophisticated marketing and research departments filled with public relations experts and backed by huge resources to use to push a drug.  Through these experts and sophisticated marketing techniques, the drug manufacturers are able to seed medical research, manipulate decision makers, hire experts to support their research, and target government health care programs.  These marketing schemes are designed to expand drug sales beyond FDA approved uses into off-label uses and to avoid scrutiny of independent research.  

Further, these drug company marketing departments have also devised Physician and Medical Professional Profiling schemes that they can use to determine what best motivates a particular physician opinion leader and use this information combined with advanced marketing techniques to manipulate the well placed physician without the medical doctor even realizing that they are being manipulated.  These techniques include understanding that some medical doctors are research oriented while others are politically motivated, financially motivated, career motivated, or relationally motivated.  By understanding a medical doctor's predispositions, interests, and motivations, a drug company marketing department or medical device marketing department can use or manipulate a well placed medical doctor based on their profiled information and push opinion leaders in targeted medical communities and states to use a specific drug or medical device. 

As such, physician Medicaid fraud whistleblowers, drug company Medicaid fraud whistleblowers, neurologist Medicaid fraud whistleblowers, health care administrator Medicaid fraud whistleblowers, pharmacist Medicaid whistleblowers, and other medical professional whistleblowers are needed to blow the whistle on Billions of dollars in Health Care Fraud.   

Drug Company Influence on Standards of Care and Hospital Formularies Through Marketing Fraud, Fraudulent Research, and Manipulation

Many health care professions have become aware of the strong influence that drug companies now have in determining community standards of care for medication use in patients.  These drug companies push drug samples into many hospitals and often use powerful forms of manipulation including biased research, influencing key medical doctors, and kickbacks to get their drugs placed on hospital formularies. 

Because of the immense power and influence of drug companies, it is becoming common to have drug marketing executives and representative to be able to influence what drugs whole communities.  In many situations the drug companies are more powerful than individual doctors that are forced to follow hospital formularies.  This drug company manipulation of the medical community can be extremely dangerous because it takes important medical decisions out of the hands of individual medical doctors and allows the drug companies to push potentially dangerous drugs for off-label drug uses and in inappropriate situations. 

The drug industry's main goal is to make a profit.  Each drug company is trying to sell as much of their drug as they can regardless of the potential danger to patients or if there are cheaper more effective alternatives available.  If the marketing executives and drug representatives can get their drug placed on a hospital formulary or make it the standard of care in a community, they are able to make lots of money.  Once this is accomplished there are economic incentives to keep expanding the use of the drug to keep expanding off-label uses. 

Recently several large drug companies have been caught fraudulently marketing drugs for off-label purposes.  These drug companies have had to pay Billions of dollars for Medicare Marketing Fraud Off-Label Lawsuits, Medicaid Marketing Fraud Off-Label Lawsuits, and other health care fraud lawsuits.   Despite these large fines, Drug Companies have continued this practice because they are making profits of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars.

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors hit Pfizer Inc. with a record-breaking $2.3 billion in fines Wednesday and called the world's largest drug maker a repeating corporate cheat for illegal drug promotions that plied doctors with free golf, massages, and resort junkets." Pfizer to pay record $2.3B penalty over promotions Repeat offender Pfizer paying record $2.3B settlement for illegal drug promotions By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer On Wednesday September 2, 2009, 3:47 pm EDT

The Department of Justice has announced that this penalty is a warning to all drug manufacturers that criminal and civil prosecution of fraudulent drug marketing, fraudulent off label marketing, illegal kickbacks, and other fraud schemes.  They have also announced that there are several new Medicare Fraud and Medicaid Fraud Law Enforcement Teams that are cracking down on Medicare Fraud and Medicaid Fraud Schemes.  These teams will be investigating and prosecuting people that have profited from these scheme and people that knew about the fraudulent scheme, but failed to report them.

Pharmaceutical Marketing Representatives and Medical Device Marketing Representatives often Combine Free Gifts, Lunches, Dinners, and Drinks with Biased and/or Fraudulent Research to Encourage Medicare Off-label Drug Use, Changes in Standards of Care, and Over Prescribing of Medical Devices or Drugs

Marketing fraud including medical device marketing fraud and drug company marketing fraud has increased over the past decade as medical device marketing executives, pharmaceutical marketing executives, and other health care executives are using advanced marketing schemes to manipulate doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, and other health care providers.  These advanced marketing schemes are often fraudulent and designed to increase drug profits through off label marketing and over use of unsafe medical devices and drugs.   

Pharmaceutical representatives, medical device marketing representatives, and marketing executives that use illegal kickbacks and fraud to sell more drugs and medical equipment may be subject to criminal and civil liability for their actions.  If you are aware of and have evidence of these illegal kickbacks or fraud schemes, it is important to step up and blow the whistle, not only to avoid potential liability or to potentially collect a large reward for properly reporting the fraud, but because without whistleblowers Billions of dollars are continuing to be stolen each year from Medicare, Medicaid, and taxpayers.

From providing false information to using young attractive and charismatic drug representatives and free gifts, drug companies and medical device companies are using advanced drug marketing schemes and techniques to push physicians to use new drugs and products to obtain as much Medicare money as possible.  When these marketing techniques are used fraudulently to push a dangerous drug or to push a drug or medical device for off-label purposes, it can be dangerous for the patient's health as well as can be the basis for a qui tam lawsuit or other lawsuit if the Medicare Marketing Fraud can be documented.

Free gifts, lunches, dinners, and drug samples from drug companies are common place in the World of the successful physician.  Sales people and marketing representatives commonly seek to use free meals, drinks, marketing giveaways, and drug samples, to obtain the attention of a medical doctor and these free gifts can often influence a physician to use a new, more expensive, and less safe drug.  A recent article, Prescribing Under the Influence By E. Haavi Morreim, thoughtfully discusses the potential influence direct or indirect that free meals and gifts from drug representatives and medical device representatives can have on physicians.  These freebies combined with false marketing materials on a drug or medical device can often manipulate a medical doctor into prescribing drugs for off-label purposes, using an inferior or unsafe produce, or over prescribing a drug or medical device.

When this occurs, it can be difficult to determine who all was involved in the fraud and if the physician should have known about the false research materials and fraudulent representation about the drug or received some type of kickback.  It is extremely important for physicians to be careful what gifts that take from drug companies, to verify materials given to them by drug companies, and to report fraudulent activities where a drug company is committing fraud or using illegal kickbacks to sell more drugs.  It is also vital that physicians report drugs that adverse effects and that are dangerous.

Pharmaceutical Marketing Executives and Medical Device Marketing Executives often use Attractive and Charismatic Marketing Representatives with Advanced Fraudulent Marketing Scripts to Encourage Medicare Fraud Including Off-label Drug Use and Over Prescribing of Medical Devices

Another technique that drug companies use to push their new drugs and implants include hiring attractive and charismatic drug representatives to push physicians through an advanced script that falsely presents a new medication or medical device as better and more safe than it actually is.  The drug representatives are usually highly articulate and are able to use the skewed research from the drug marketing departments combined with befriending or flirting with the physician to push the doctor to use their company's new product regardless of safety or expense.

These advanced fraudulent scripts are often presented as well accepted scientific research including cites or references from authentic sounding publications.  They are also often well thought out by drug marketing executives and medical device marketing executives then given to and rehearsed by the  attractive and charismatic drug representatives or medical device representative for the sole purpose of manipulating the medical doctor into prescribing more of the drug for off-label purposes or the medical device.

It is important that drug representatives, hospital administrators, and physicians that are aware drug companies using fraudulent research and fraudulent scripts to sell drugs to report these fraudulent marketing schemes.

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Through Medicare Marketing Fraud Whistle Blower Lawsuits, Off Label Medicare Marketing Fraud Qui Tam Lawsuits, and other Medicare Health Care Fraud Lawsuits, hundreds of billions of dollars have been recovered from dishonest pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, health insurance companies, health providers, individuals and organizations that have committed Medicare health care fraud and stolen large amounts of money from the government.

It is extremely important that Whistle Blowers continue to expose fraudulent marketing practices, billing practices and unnecessary treatments that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.   Off Label Drug Marketing Fraud Lawyer Jason Coomer works on Off Label Pharmaceutical False Claims Act Lawsuits and commonly works with other Pharmaceutical Medicare Marketing Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers, Medicare Medical Product Marketing Fraud Qui Tam Whistleblower Lawyers, and Medicare Health Care Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers. 

  Drug Marketing Fraud Law Suits, Price Fixing Qui Tam Lawsuits, Kickback Marketing Scam Lawsuits, Pharmaceutical Marketing Fraud Lawsuits, and Pharmaceutical Whistleblower Qui Tam Law Suits

Taketa-Abbott Pharmaceutical Pharmaceutical Products Inc. -- $559,483,560 under the False Claims Act In October 2001, TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc. agreed to pay $875 million to resolve criminal charges and civil liabilities in connection with fraudulent drug pricing and marketing of Lupron, a drug sold for the treatment of prostate cancer. Of this amount, $559,483,560 was recovered under the False Claims Act. In addition, TAP pled guilty to a conspiracy to violate the Prescription Drug Marketing Act and paid a $290 million criminal fine, the largest criminal fine ever in a health care fraud prosecution. Under the Lupron scheme, TAP gave doctors kickbacks by providing free samples with the knowledge that the physicians would bill Medicare and Medicaid $500 per dose. At the time the Lupron fraud was discovered, Lupron accounted for 10% of the money spent on prescription drugs under Medicare Part-A. As part of the settlement, TAP entered into what prosecutors called a "sweeping" corporate integrity agreement.

Schering Plough -- $255,000,000 under the False Claims Act In August of 2008, Schering-Plough agreed to pay a total of $435 million to resolve criminal charges and civil liabilities in connection with illegal sales and marketing programs for brain tumor medication Temodar, and Intron-A which is used in the treatment of bladder cancer and hepatitis C. The Schering settlement also covers best price violations related to Claritin RediTabs (an antihistamine), and K-Dur, which is used in the treatment of ulcers.

Serono-- $567,000,000 under the False Claims Act In October of 2005, Serono agreed to pay $704 million to settle a fraud case involving Serostim, a human growth hormone product used to fight AIDS-related wasting. The charges involved kickbacks to doctors for prescribing Serostim, kickbacks to specialist pharmacies for recommending Serostim, illegal off-label marketing of the drug, and non-FDA approved diagnosis equipment designed to spur more Serostim prescriptions. Serostim cost as much as $20,000 for a three-month regime. Of the total $704 million settlement, $567 million is earmarked to settle federal and state civil claims ($305 million federal), with $136.9 million paid as a related criminal fine.

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Through Whistle Blower Lawsuits, Qui Tam Lawsuits, and other Health Care Fraud Lawsuits, Billions of dollars have been recovered from dishonest pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, health providers, individuals and organizations that have committed health care fraud and stolen large amounts of money from the government.

It is extremely important that Whistle Blowers continue to expose fraudulent marketing practices, billing practices and unnecessary treatments that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.   Off Label Drug Marketing Fraud Lawyer Jason Coomer works on Off Label Pharmaceutical False Claims Act Lawsuits and commonly works with other Drug Company Whistleblower Lawyers, Qui Tam Whistleblower Lawyers, and Health Care Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers. 

If you are a pharmaceutical whistleblower that is aware of fraudulent off label drug marketing practices by a pharmaceutical marketing department, feel free to contact Pharmaceutical Off Label Drug Marketing Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer Jason Coomer via e-mail message or our submission form about a potential pharmaceutical whistleblower, off label pharmaceutical marketing fraud, or other pharmaceutical whistleblower qui tam lawsuit. 

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Medical doctor whistleblowers, hospital employee whistleblowers, physician whislteblowers, health care administrator whistleblowers, pharmacist whistleblowers, nurses, or other medical professional whistleblowers are needed to blow the whistle on Billions of dollars in Health Care Fraud.  If you are aware of hospital formulary fraud, fraudulent off label marketing practices, or illegal drug kickbacks, please feel free to contact Pharmaceutical Off Label Marketing Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer Jason Coomer via e-mail message or use our submission form about a potential off label marketing fraud whistleblower lawsuit, drug kickback marketing fraud lawsuit, or other marketing fraud whistleblower qui tam lawsuit. 

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If you are aware of a large health care company or individual that is defrauding the United States Government out of millions or billions of dollars, contact Medicaid Drug Marketing Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, Jason Coomer.  As a Texas Drug Marketing Fraud Lawyer, he works with other powerful qui tam lawyers that handle large Health Care Government Fraud cases.  He works with San Antonio Hospital Employee Whistleblower Lawyers, California Drug Formulary Fraud Lawyers, Dallas Hospital Employee Drug Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers, Houston Medicaid Off Label Drug Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers, and other Medicaid Drug Marketing Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers as well as with Health Care Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawyers throughout the nation to blow the whistle on fraud that hurts the United States. 

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If you are a drug company employee whistleblower, fraud examiner fraud whistleblower, public relations experts, medical expert, or other person with specialized knowledge of fraudulent off label drug marketing practices, drug price fixing, drug kickbacks, or other pharmaceutical fraud by a pharmaceutical marketing department, health care provider, or drug company, feel free to contact Pharmaceutical Off Label Drug Marketing Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer Jason Coomer via e-mail message or our submission form about a potential pharmaceutical whistleblower, off label pharmaceutical marketing fraud, or other pharmaceutical whistleblower qui tam lawsuit.