Corporate news

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are both investigating Merck over its sales practices overseas, The Associated Press reports.

Citing new regulatory filings, AP says both the DOJ and SEC have sent letters to the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant seeking information about its compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies from bribing foreign officials to win overseas contracts.

"The company is cooperating with the agencies in their requests and believes that this inquiry is part of a broader review of pharmaceutical industry practices in foreign countries," Merck said in a statement, AP reports. 

An insurance giant and an electronic health-records company teamed up this week in a venture designed to coordinate the delivery of primary care services. 

Louisville-based Humana Inc. and athenahealth, based in Watertown, Mass., say the collaboration not only will encourage providers' transition to efficient new medical technologies, but will also promote better quality of care by providing financial incentives to primary-care doctors who meet certain quality benchmarks.

"Seamless, integrated electronic medical records are a critical necessity in patient care today, greatly reducing the chance of medical errors and duplicative treatment, facilitating a more holistic view of the patient's care profile and improving outcomes," said Bruce Perkins, senior vice president of Humana's Healthcare Delivery Systems and Clinical Processes organization.

"This partnership not only makes it possible, but makes it easy and affordable for providers to capture patient-care activity into an integrated [electronic health record]," he said.  

Under the partnership, physician services will be gauged using national HEDIS measures, which are designed to improve care delivery by monitoring things like readmission rates, generic drug dispensing rates and mail order usage.

Doctors participating in the Humana-athenahealth program could be eligible for payments up to 20 percent higher than the current fee-for-service system dictates.

General Electric and Intel on Monday announced a new partnership designed to deliver healthcare services remotely to the world's growing number of chronic illness sufferers.

The tech giants hope to apply telehealth technologies to promote the delivery of care in patients' homes or independent living centers. The strategy is designed to promote patient independence and cut healthcare costs by keeping patients out of hospitals and other expensive care settings.

"New models of care delivery are required to address some of the largest issues facing society today, including our aging population, increasing healthcare costs and a large number of people living with chronic conditions," Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO, said in a statement announcing the 50/50 venture. 

"We must rethink models of care that go beyond hospital and clinic visits, to home and community-based care models that allow for prevention, early detection, behavior change and social support. The creation of this new company is aimed at accelerating just that."

The companies hope to launch their new venture by the end of the year. No financial details were disclosed.

The Rite Aid drug store chain has agreed to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of federal medical privacy laws, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday.

The settlement follows an investigation by HHS' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Federal Trade Commission sparked by television reports that Rite Aid pharmacies across the country were dumping prescriptions and pill bottles with personal identification still visible. The settlement also requires Rite Aid to improve policies and procedures to safeguard the privacy of its customers at its almost 4,800 retail pharmacies.

"It is critical that companies, large and small, build a culture of compliance to protect consumers' right to privacy and safeguard health information..." Georgina Verdugo, director of OCR, said in a statement. "We hope that this agreement will spur other health organizations to examine and improve their policies and procedures for protecting patient information during the disposal process."

The corrective action program includes:

• Revising and distributing policies and procedures regarding disposal of protected health information and sanctioning workers who do not follow them;

• training employees on these new requirements;

• conducting internal monitoring; and

• engaging a qualified, independent third-party assessor to conduct compliance reviews and render reports to HHS. 

Rite Aid has also agreed to external, independent assessments of its pharmacy stores' compliance with an FTC consent order. The HHS corrective action plan will be in place for three years; the FTC order will be in place for 20 years.

The Florida Medical Association is scheduled to consider the issue at its annual meeting next month. Read more...

The technology firm CSC on Wednesday launched an online forum where physicians' offices and hospitals can learn more about how to meet federal standards governing the adoption of electronic health records (EHR). The launch comes one week after the Obama administration released regulations spelling out what constitutes "meaningful use" of the records, called for in last year's recovery act.

Falls Church-based CSC's Meaningful Use Community is billed as an open and interactive online community that will "provide an open forum for healthcare professionals to learn, connect and share guidance with others who have successfully implemented meaningful use of EHRs," according to a company statement.

Members will have "access to CSC experts and other industry leaders for advice and information about the federal government's criteria and insights on how to implement meaningful use of EHRs in a timely manner," according to the company. Healthcare professionals wishing to join can do so by visiting the forum's  website.

Dr. Scott Campbell has been named as the new executive director and CEO of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. Campbell was the national vice president of research programs at the American Diabetes Association.

The foundation is a nonprofit created by Congress to support the mission of the National Institutes of Health and its 27 institutes: improving health through scientific discovery in the search for cures and extending healthy life. 

“We are delighted Dr. Campbell will be at the helm of the foundation and, given his experience and background in biomedical, programmatic and donor development, are confident in his ability to take the organization to the next level,” Foundation Chairman Charles Sanders said in statement.

Campbell replaces Amy Porter, who resigned in February to become the executive director and CEO of the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

The president and CEO of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has been elected to chair the board of directors of America's Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry group announced Thursday. Vicky Gregg will serve as chair for the 12-month period that began July 1.

The choice drew bipartisan praise from Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who in 2004 appointed the former nurse to a National Institutes of Health commission tasked with developing a strategy for building a nationwide electronic health records network.

"Having had the privilege of working with Vicky in the past, I’ve always been impressed by her firm grasp of the complex health care issues facing America today," Frist said in a statement. "As a strategic thinker, she sees the big picture and has a strong sense of how it all works together. As a proven industry leader, she brings a fresh and innovative perspective to the table. I’m confident that Vicky will be a great asset to AHIP, and by extension, America’s health care system."

"Vicky becomes Chair at a critical time as our industry works to implement the new health care reform law in a manner that will minimize disruption for the 200 million Americans our members serve and help bring new people into the system," added AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni. "Her leadership skills and wealth of experience will be a great asset as our Board continues its work on the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health care."

Gregg succeeds Jay Gellert, President and CEO of Health Net Inc., based in Woodland Hills, Calif. 

A government watchdog group is urging federal anti-trust regulators to investigate drug companies that offer rebates to doctors who use only those companies' vaccines.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is claiming that such exclusivity agreements threaten competition, innovation and patient care. 

“As a result of these restrictive contracts,” CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan wrote Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), “physicians are barred from purchasing alternative vaccines even when they are demonstrably more effective and their use would be in the patients’ best interest.” 

CREW is pointing to a series of contracts cut between Sanofi Pasteur, Merck and physician group practices, under which the doctors were required to use those companies’ vaccines or risk losing their rebates. 

“Please know that by your participation in the Merck/Sanofi vaccine contract, you cannot also participate in a [GlaxoSmithKline] or Novartis contract,” reads a memo to doctors from an administrator at one of the group practices.

As a result of such agreements, CREW says, doctors are discouraged from using vaccines that might be more effective for certain patients.  

“No one should have to question their physicians’ motives,” Sloan wrote to Richard Feinstein, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, “but the practices of companies like Sanofi Pasteur and Merck suggest we should all be questioning our doctors closely about why they chose a particular vaccine.”

Rep. Joe Barton will keep his spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee after apologizing to BP.