Articles by John Tozzi

Florida Seeks Personal Prescription Data From Drug Middlemen

Florida insurance regulators have asked companies to hand over extensive amounts of data on people’s pharmacy claims, including personal information and prescription drug usage, an unusual move for a state regulator that’s raising privacy concerns. An eight-page request went out …

Ackman Backs Doctor as His Fight With UnitedHealth Escalates

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman pledged to cover the legal fees for a Texas doctor in a dispute with UnitedHealth Group Inc. over her claims that the company asked her to scrub out of an operation to justify a patient’s care. …

FTC Says CVS, Cigna and UnitedHealth Abuse Middleman Role

Units of CVS Health Corp., Cigna Group and UnitedHealth Group Inc. charged significantly more than the national average acquisition cost for dozens of specialty generic drugs, bringing in more than $7.3 billion in excess revenue over six years, the Federal …

Medicare Advantage Whistleblower Case Settled in New York

US authorities have reached a settlement to resolve a whistleblower case alleging that a New York state health insurer systematically defrauded the federal Medicare program by exaggerating how sick members were in order to boost profits. The settlement was disclosed …

CVS Accused of Illegal Opioid Dispensing in Whistleblower Suit

CVS Health Corp. pharmacies illegally dispensed controlled substances including opioids, fueling an overdose crisis as short-staffed stores ignored red flags, the US Department of Justice alleged in a lawsuit unsealed Wednesday. The largest US pharmacy chain deliberately set staffing levels …

Grief, Then Confusion: Questions of Motive Emerge in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Killing

UnitedHealth Group’s investor day turned from an ordinary corporate meeting in a midtown Manhattan hotel to a scene of stunned grief quicker than the health insurer could even react. “It was mid-presentation when everyone began to get the headlines,” said …

UnitedHealth Executive Fatally Shot in NYC on Investor Day

Brian Thompson, a longtime UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive, was fatally shot in midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning in what authorities described as a targeted attack that sent reverberations across the city and corporate boardrooms globally. Thompson, 50, was shot in …

Cigna Sues Federal Trade Commission Over ‘Defamatory’ Report

Cigna Group’s Express Scripts sued the US Federal Trade Commission over a recent report that the company said demonizes pharmacy benefit managers and asked the court to order the agency to retract it. The lawsuit escalates the conflict between drug …

UnitedHealth Hack Put Data of One in Three Americans at Risk

UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty told lawmakers his company is still trying to determine why its computer systems were left vulnerable to hackers who perpetrated a devastating cyberattack. Lawmakers zeroed in on lax defenses during more than …

Hack That Paralyzed US Health Care Turns Up Scrutiny on Insurer

When a cyberattack on Change Healthcare paralyzed much of the US health-care system, some lawmakers saw it as proof its parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was too big. UnitedHealth Chief Executive Andrew Witty saw it differently. He has said that …