Archive for March 2024
Pharmacy Owner Convicted of Medicaid Fraud
Last month, a federal jury convicted an Ohio pharmacist Nathanael Thompson, and his operations manager, Salam Ahmad, who was also a pharmacy technician, for conspiring to defraud Ohio’s Medicaid program. Thompson owned four pharmacies in the Columbus, Ohio area and conspired to charge Medicaid for a particular manufacturer’s omeprazole, which was reimbursable at a significantly…
Read MoreNew York Pharmacists Can Dispense Hormonal Contraception Without a Prescription
New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an order yesterday allowing New York pharmacists to dispense hormonal contraception without a prescription, and in doing so, New York joins at least 28 other states that have expanded pharmacists’ ability to prescribe and dispense hormonal contraception. Under Governor Hochul’s new order, New York pharmacists are able to dispense…
Read MoreNovo Nordisk Settles Two Ozempic and Wegovy Copycat Lawsuits
Novo Nordisk announced last month that it settled two lawsuits against two businesses – Cosmetic Laser Professional Med Spa and Nuvida RX Weight Loss – who claimed to offer compounded versions of its Ozempic and Wegovy drugs. The two businesses, based in Florida, are permanently banned from claiming that their compounded drugs are approved Food…
Read MoreDEA and Morris & Dickson Announce Settlement
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently announced a settlement with pharmaceutical distributor Morris & Dickson Co., LLC (Morris & Dickson) for failing to maintain effective controls against diversion of controlled substance, which included the failure to report thousands of unusually large orders of oxycodone and hydrocodone. As part of the settlement last month, Morris &…
Read MorePharmacy Outages Triggered by ‘Blackcat’ Ransomware
Hackers from the ‘Blackcat’ ransomeware gang are reportedly behind the February 21st pharmacy outage last month. The pharmacy outage halted prescription deliveries for nearly one week after hackers reportedly gained access to United Health owned Change Healthcare information technology systems which also led to massive disruptions at pharmacies across the country, including CVS, Walgreens, Publix,…
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