Latest Drugs Headlines
All the headlines from our Drugs Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Penn. Doc Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Overprescribing Drugs
Sep 25 2012 // A federal judge in Pittsburgh has sentenced a physician to more than 11 years in prison and ordered him to pay $700,000 to two insurance companies in connection with charges that he overprescribed painkillers to dozens of...
Workers’ Comp Changes Go Into Effect in Mississippi
Sep 24 2012 // Insurers and employers in Mississippi now have greater latitude to conduct alcohol and drug tests on employees following a workplace accident and to reduce benefits for workers with pre-existing conditions. Under new...
Mississippi Workers’ Comp Drug Testing, Benefits Changes Go Into Effect
Sep 17 2012 // Insurers and employers in Mississippi now have greater latitude to conduct alcohol and drug tests on employees following a workplace accident and reduce benefits for workers with pre-existing conditions. Those changes are...
Premiums for Employer-Sponsored Family Health Plans Rose 4% This Year: Kaiser
Sep 11 2012 // Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $15,745 this year, up four percent from last year, with workers on average paying $4,316 toward the cost of their coverage, according to a new report...
Police Prep for Labor Day Weekend Partiers
Aug 31 2012 // “A drunk driver killed someone I love,” reads a sign on the Interstate 80 East exit ramp onto Route 611 in Stroud Township. It’s the same area where Raymond Gelormini Jr., 49, of Hackettstown, N.J., was...
Janssen Pharmaceuticals Settles Deceptive Advertising Practices Suit for $181M
Aug 30 2012 // Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its parent company Johnson & Johnson have agreed to resolve charges of improper marketing and advertising of the powerful anti-psychotic drugs Risperdal and Invega in the largest...
Insurers Seek 6.1% Increase in Florida Workers’ Compensation Rates
Aug 24 2012 // Florida employers may see their workers’ compensation rates increase as the National Council on Compensation Insurance announced it is seeking a statewide average 6.1 percent rate hike on behalf of insurers. If...
Former Conn. Doc Sentenced for Illegal Prescriptions, Insurance Fraud
Aug 10 2012 // A former Plainville, Conn., doctor has been sentenced to four months in prison for dealing prescription drugs. Prosecutors say Richard Luzietti was charged after an investigation into about 100 prescriptions that he wrote...
Philanthropist’s Death Sparks Unusual Lawsuit
Aug 6 2012 // When former model and philanthropist Phyllis Harvey died last year at the age of 59, little note was taken. Brief paid obituaries appeared in Los Angeles and her hometown paper in North Carolina. There was no mention of...
Report: Calif. Head and Spine Injuries Cost $500M in 10 years
Aug 6 2012 // Head and spinal injuries cost California’s workers’ compensation insurers more than $500 million over 10 years, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Institute’s “Injury Score...
Ohio Injured Workers Fund Battling Painkillers
Jul 30 2012 // Nearly a third of the prescriptions the state’s insurance fund for injured workers paid for last year were for powerful narcotics, part of a 37 percent increase in the use of such drugs — mainly addictive...
Ohio Health System Fighting Pill Fraud with Fingerprints
Jul 27 2012 // A southeastern Ohio health system is hoping a fingerprint collection program will help it cut down on prescription painkiller abuse. Brent Saunders, board chairman at Holzer Health Systems in Gallipolis says painkiller...
Report: Calif. Head and Spine Injuries Cost $500M in 10 years
Jul 25 2012 // Head and spinal injuries cost California’s workers’ compensation insurers more than $500 million over 10 years, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Institute’s “Injury Score...
Australian Woman Wins Multi-million Thalidomide Payout from Diageo
Jul 18 2012 // An Australian woman has won a multi-million dollar payout from UK Company Diageo Plc, the local distributor of the drug Thalidomide that caused birth defects in thousand of babies around the world in the 1960s, her lawyers...
Walmart, Target to Pay Mass. $232K for Prescription Drug Overcharges
Jul 5 2012 // Walmart and Target Corporation will pay $232,000 to cities and towns across Massachusetts to settle allegations that the companies allegedly overcharged public agencies for prescription drugs through the workers’...
Today’s Supreme Court Healthcare Ruling: Possible Scenarios, Effects
Jun 28 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law, expected on Thursday, may have wide-ranging political and economic implications. Here is a look at possible scenarios for...
Kentucky Governor Promoting New Drug Law for Miners
Jun 21 2012 // Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is promoting a newly passed law that permanently revokes the credentials of miners who fail drug tests. Beshear was in Pikeville on Tuesday where he said the law sends a clear message that drug...
Berkley Life Sciences Launches Coverage for Drug & Medical Device Shortages
Jun 19 2012 // Berkley Life Sciences, LLC, a member company of W. R. Berkley Corp., has released a new insurance created to address attempts to hold pharmaceutical and medical device companies liable because their drugs, devices or other...
Idaho Getting $790K In Drug Price Settlement
Jun 12 2012 // The Attorney General’s office says the state of Idaho will collect $790,000 as part of a legal settlement with Forest Laboratories Inc. over allegations the company overcharged for its drugs. The state has recovered...
Drug Maker Sues Louisiana AG in Avandia Drug Case
Jun 6 2012 // Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has filed suit against Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, alleging that private attorneys hired by Caldwell to prosecute the state’s lawsuit against the company have a...
