Prescription Drugs Archives

Social Justice

Fraud Still Plagues Medicare’s Prescription Drug Program

Medicare has increased oversight of its prescription drug program but many holes remain, allowing fraud and abuse to proliferate. Questionable practices were found at 1,400 pharmacies, which collectively billed Medicare $2.3 billion in 2014.

Charles Ornstein

Social Justice

The Cost of a Cure

Medicare’s spending on drugs to treat hepatitis C soared more than 15-fold from 2013 to 2014 as new breakthroughs came to the market, according to previously undisclosed federal data. The drugs cure the disease, but taxpayers are footing the bill.

Charles Ornstein

Social Justice

Prescription Painkiller Abuse Linked With Heroin

As states crack down hard on pain prescriptions, some are seeing a resurgence in abuse of the harder stuff.

Lauren Kirchner

Social Justice

Medicare Finally Tightens the Reins on Its Drug Program

Medicare gives itself the power to ban physicians if they prescribe medications in abusive ways.

Charles Ornstein

Social Justice

Medicare’s Drug Program Needs Stronger Protections Against Fraud

A new report finds that more than half of insurance companies in Medicare’s drug program haven’t reported fraud cases to the government. The findings echo an earlier investigation that found fraud flourishing in the program.

Charles Ornstein

Social Justice

If We’re Going to Go After Dirty Doctors, We Need a Definition for ‘Abusive’ Prescribing

As Medicare considers banning doctors who pose a “threat to the health or safety” of patients, it plans to consider an array of factors.

Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein

Social Justice

What’s Really Behind America’s Suicide Epidemic?

The means—prescription drugs, access to firearms, bridges without prevention methods—play a much bigger role than any emotions or thought processes.

Cody C. Delistraty

Social Justice

Fraud Rx: Medicare Makes Moves to Tighten Oversight of Dirty Doctors

Action comes after ProPublica uses the government’s own data to find patterns of dangerous prescribing, waste, and potential fraud in Medicare Part D.

Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein

Social Justice

‘Let the Crime Spree Begin’: How Fraud Flourishes in Medicare’s Drug Plan

The federal government does little to stop schemers from stealing from Medicare Part D, the program that provides prescription drugs to more than 36 million seniors and disabled people.

Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein