|
08
Feb
|
by QuestionGirl • 11:24 am
|
Gee, maybe this will encourage more pharmaceutical reps to be whistleblowers. We can only hope………
Merck agreed yesterday to pay more than $650 million to settle charges that it routinely overbilled the government for its most popular medicines, the arthritis drug Vioxx and the cholesterol drug Zocor, cheating Medicaid out of millions of dollars in discounts over eight years.
They agreed! ha! Gee thanks……
And a true thank you to H. Dean Steinke, the whistelblower.
The Merck settlement culminates an investigation that began in 2000 and is one of the first in a series of cases centering on whether drugmakers used unfair pricing practices to bilk the government. The Justice Department is looking into 630 health-care whistleblower claims.
H. Dean Steinke, a district sales manager for Merck, set off the investigation after he noticed his company was using questionable sales tactics. Steinke complained to his supervisors, who brushed him off, so he turned to federal authorities.
Steinke, a 51-year-old Michigan native, will receive about $68 million from the settlement as a whistleblower reward. He said he was prompted to go to authorities after his direct supervisor told him: “I don’t care how you do it, but get the damn business,” when he questioned the sales practices. “There comes a time when you just dig in your heels and say, ‘You know what? They’re not going to get away with it,’ ” Steinke said.
Full article at the Washington Post
