PsychRights®
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              Psychiatric Rights

Presentation On
PsychRights' Medicaid Fraud Initiative Against Psychiatric Drugging of Children & Youth
 

On February 2, 2010, from 4 pm to 8 pm, after the oral argument in Jim Gottstein's appeal of Eli Lilly v. Gottstein,  Mr. Gottstein will give a presentation on PsychRights' Medicaid Fraud Initiative Against Psychiatric Drugging of Children & Youth at:

Community Access
2 Washington Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY, 10004
The massive psychiatric drugging of America's children, particularly poor, disadvantaged children & youth through Medicaid and in foster care is an unfolding public health catastrophe of massive proportions.  This catastrophe is being caused by the fraudulent promotion of these harmful practices by pharmaceutical companies sacrificing children and youth's health, futures and lives on the altar of corporate profits.  In 2009, Eli Lilly agreed to pay $1.4 Billion in criminal and civil penalties for such off-label promotion of Zyprexa and Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 Billion for the illegal off-label promotion of Geodon and other drugs, yet the practice has not stopped.  It is merely a cost of doing business to these pharmaceutical Goliaths and, in fact, caps their liability for these crimes.  Most importantly, these settlements have not stopped the practice of child psychiatrists and other prescribers giving these drugs to children and youth and Medicaid continuing to pay for these fraudulent claims.

PsychRights' Medicaid Fraud Initiative Against Psychiatric Drugging of Children & Youth is designed to address this problem by bringing lawsuits brought against the doctors prescribing these harmful, ineffective drugs, their employers, and the pharmacies filling these prescriptions and submitting them to Medicaid for reimbursement. Each offending prescription carries a penalty of between $5,500 and $11,000.  This is why it is expected that once their financial exposure becomes known to them, prescribers and pharmacies will curtail the practice.  Anyone with knowledge of specific offending prescriptions can sue on behalf of the government to recover for such Medicaid Fraud, and receive a percentage of the recovery, if any.

Mr. Gottstein's presentation will walk through the requirements of the Federal False Claims Act as it pertains to this type of Medicaid Fraud.  People and lawyers who may be interested in bringing such suits should come to this presentation.  

If you are planning to attend, please e-mail rsvp@psychrights.org so that we can have an idea of how many people will be attending.

 

Last modified 1/22/2010
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