Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
St. Louis Tries To Step Up To Compensate For Missouri's Lack Of A Prescription Drug Monitoring Database
The St. Louis County Department of Public Health unveiled new online resources Wednesday designed to connect doctors with information on opioids, pain management and substance abuse. The toolkit is the latest addition to the county鈥檚 prescription drug monitoring program, which was established in the absence of a statewide program. (Farzan, 1/22)
A former pharmaceutical executive and one-time stripper was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison Wednesday for her role in a conspiracy to bribe health care providers to prescribe a highly addictive opioid painkiller, far less than the six years prosecutors recommended. A lawyer for Sunrise Lee, former regional director for Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics, had recommended no incarceration, arguing in federal court in Boston that prosecutors had included Lee in the case simply to exploit her 鈥渟alacious鈥 background. Lee鈥檚 lawyer, Peter Horstmann, also contended Insys鈥檚 decision to hire the former stripper was the 鈥渘ext unethical but logical step鈥 by an industry that has been criticized for recruiting attractive young women as sales representatives to woo doctors to prescribe certain drugs. (Saltzman, 1/22)
The owner of a now-shuttered for-profit Ohio addiction treatment company was sentenced Wednesday to 7 1/2 years in federal prison for a scheme that prosecutors said led to $48 million in fraudulent Medicaid billings. Ryan Sheridan, 39, of Leetonia worked with others to defraud the federal government through Braking Point Recovery Center. The company provided detox, outpatient treatment, day treatment and sober-living services. (Heisig, 1/22)
