Over-Medicating For Profit

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SSRI-Research

2 Apr 2006 04:29:54 -0000

[sSRI-Research] File - Over-Medicating For Profit

 

 

Whistleblowers Reveal Over-Medicating For Profit Scam

February 19, 2006. By Evelyn Pringle

 

In Pennsylvania, Whistleblower, Dr Kruszewski, discovered cases where

adults and children in state care were prescribed as many as 5

psychiatric drugs at the same time. When he went to his superiors to

report the

over-prescribing and warned of the potential liability to the state if

it was allowed to continue, he was told " it is none of your business. "

 

According to Dr Kruszewski, it was polypharmacy at its worst. " They

were putting almost all the patients on the same concoction of

antipsychotic and antiseizure drugs, " he reports But the discovery he

found most

disturbing was that many of the patients taking the drugs had never had

seizures and had never been psychotic.

 

The fact is that drug companies are making a fortune off drugging

patients who are covered by tax payer funded government programs. The

drug

pushing racked begins with preferred drug lists maintained in most

states. Once a drug is added to the list, it is prescribed as a first

line

of treatment for all people in state run institutions and all patients

in the general population who are covered by programs like Medicaid and

Medicare.

 

The lists represent a goldmine to drug companies. For instance, if Eli

Lilly's one antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, was to be removed from the

preferred drug list in Florida, the company would lose $70 million

annually, according to the November 2005 Indianapolis Business Journal.

 

In 2004, Lilly billed Florida Medicaid over $20 per pill for Zyprexa

according to a Presentation to Senate Health and Human Services

Appropriations Committee on January 13, 2005.

 

Pharmaceutical companies will go to any lengths to get their drugs

added to the lists, including the use of financial incentives to

influence

state officials and policy makers involved in compiling and maintaining

the lists.

 

Whistleblower Allen Jones, was an Investigator in the Pennsylvania

Office of Inspector General, Bureau of Special Investigations, when he

discovered drug company money was being used to influence state officials

and policy makers when the preferred drug list was being implemented in

that state.

 

To put the amount of money involved in perspective, the drug Zyprexa is

prescribed for schizophrenia, and according to Mr Jones' estimates,

Pennsylvania has approximately 9,000 schizophrenics in state run prisons

and mental hospitals on any given date.

 

" And based on the average length of stay, an additional 4,000 patients

move through the system each year resulting in the potential

recruitment of 13,000 customers, worth about $6,000 each per year, " he

reports.

 

" Once these folks left institutions with prescriptions in hand, " Mr

Jones adds, " many are supported through Medicaid. "

 

During his investigation, when examining the payment of money to state

employees, Mr Jones said, " I began to look at the overall issue of

Pharma marketing and immediately became alarmed that tactics used in

marketing to the private sector were being replicated with state

employees. "

 

He was suspicions about the drugs on the list because: (1) the

recommended drugs were exclusively new, patented and expensive; (2)

they were

selected by expert consensus of persons with financial ties to Pharma;

and (3) claims of increased efficacy and safety by drug companies and

state employees involved in the scam were contradicted by scientific

studies.

 

" These new " miracle " drugs did not live up to their hype, " Mr Jones

said, " they have proven to no better than generics. "

 

" Most importantly, " he explained, " most of the new drugs have been

found to cause serious, even fatal side-effects, particularly in

children. "

 

" It is a statistical certainty, " he added, " that many lives have been

lost and many others irreparably damaged. "

 

During his investigation Mr Jones discovered an off the record account

used to funnel drug company money to state officials and policy makers

who were being treated to lavish meals and expensive travel and were

receiving consultant fees and honorariums.

 

" Some state employees were paid up to $2,000 for speaking in their

official capacities at drug-company sponsored events, " Mr Jones said. " It

is illegal for a public employee to accept honorariums and to consult

with industry without permission, yet it was happening openly, " he

explained.

 

When he went to his superiors with his report, Mr Jones says, " I was

limited, shut down, ordered to limit my investigation and ultimately

threatened when I refused to set aside what I was finding. "

 

" They maintained a deliberate ignorance of what was going on, they did

not want to know, " he said, " the word came down to kill my

investigation and rein me in. "

 

He refused to be reined in and continued his investigation on his own

time. When he finally went public with his findings to the New York

Times, Mr Jones was fired. He has since filed a Whistleblower lawsuit.

 

Psychiatrist, Dr Stefan Kruszewski, was hired by the Pennsylvania

Bureau of Program Integrity in the Department of Public Welfare to

oversee

the mental health and substance abuse programs.

 

During his investigation, Dr Kruszewski uncovered serious abuses,

including the deaths of four children and one adult while in state

custody,

due to substandard care and the off-label prescribing of atypical

antipsychotics.

 

The people most vulnerable to medicating for profit were the disabled,

dependent children in state care, the prison population, and children

hooked into the state juvenile justice system.

 

In June 2003 Dr Kruszewski, traveled to an out-of-state inpatient

facility that housed 24 children from Pennsylvania whose placement in the

center had been facilitated by the Pennsylvania Office of Medical

Assistance and whose oversight was, in part, the responsibility of the

Bureau

of Program Integrity.

 

" The reasons for that trip, " he said, " was another unexpected death of

a child. "

 

On July 9, 2003, Dr Kruszewski's written preliminary assessment on the

investigation revealed children who were severely overmedicated with

antipsychotics, antidepressants and anticonvulsants were housed in

deplorable living arrangements and receiving 'treatment' that often

violated

their emotional, mental and physical well-being. The investigation also

revealed that children were being sexually abused by staff personnel.

 

Dr Kruszewski recommended the removal of the children from the facility

and also advised his superiors to consider removing children and adults

from several other facilities " in order to protect other innocent

individuals from morbid and mortal consequences of severe

over-medication,

including chemical restraints; emotional, physical and sexual abuse;

seclusion; and dirty and inadequate living conditions, " he advised.

 

Dr Kruszewski was fired in July 2003 when he refused to be silenced

after his discoveries.

 

In his whistleblower lawsuit against Pennsylvania officials and several

drug companies, Dr Kruszewski describes corrupt practices, that include

fraudulent billings, overmedicating of adults and children, and the

misuse of medication that resulted in death to persons under the care of

the state.

 

The lawsuit, also says drug companies have " distorted statistics,

violated regulations and misrepresented the effects of the use of their

psychotropic drugs simply to make money. "

 

According to Dr Kruszewski, in order to sell more drugs, pharmaceutical

companies have misrepresented their effectiveness, " by knowingly

reporting incomplete and inaccurate research results of their safety

profiles, and by off-label promotion. "

 

 

Drug-Free School Zone? Just Say NO to Prozac for Children.