Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Insys To Pay $150M To Settle Criminal, Civil Investigation Into Marketing Techniques For Its Opioids
Insys Therapeutics (INSY) reached an agreement in principle with the Department of Justice to pay $150 million over the next five years to settle civil and criminal investigations into allegedly illegal marketing of its fentanyl opioid by some of its former employees. The company could pay up to another $75 million, depending upon other undisclosed conditions. The deal comes amid long-running probes by federal and state authorities into the abuse and misuse of opioid painkillers, and the extent to which they are appropriately prescribed. Insys has figured prominently in this drama, as several former executives and employees have been arrested in connection with allegations of bribing doctors to boost sales of Subsys, which contains fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid. (Silverman, 8/8)
Dr. Robert G. Newman, who pioneered methadone maintenance as a safe substitute for heroin and struggled to redefine addiction as a chronic medical condition that cannot be cured, died on Aug. 1 in Manhattan. He was 80. He was struck by a car in the Bronx in June and never recovered from his injuries, his son, Seiji, said. (Roberts, 8/8)
A path from injury to medication, and then to addiction and death, may explain why workers in these jobs — men in particular — have had in recent years fatal opioid overdoses far more often in Massachusetts than do workers as a whole. Among fishermen, the death rate is more than five times higher. (Bebinger, 8/8)
The owners of a North Andover mental health practice have agreed to pay $612,000 in restitution to 232 patients who were illegally charged cash for opioid addiction treatment even though the patients were covered by the state’s Medicaid program. ...It’s illegal for a provider to charge Medicaid patients for a covered service. (Freyer, 8/9)
The report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that nearly a quarter of overdose deaths in a five-year period occurred among people, mostly men, who work in construction. ...The report, released Wednesday, paints a disturbing picture of workers hurt on the job, taking addictive painkillers, and needing those painkillers to keep working at jobs they would otherwise lose. (Freyer, 8/8)
