“The Department is committed to ensuring that foundations are not used as mere conduits to funnel kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to Medicare patients and to increase company profits while avoiding an important cost-control aspect of the Medicare program,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits pharmaceutical companies from offering or paying, directly or indirectly, any remuneration – which includes money or any other thing of value – to induce Medicare patients to purchase the companies’ drugs, and it prohibits third parties, such as copay foundations, from acting as a conduit for such payments. Congress included co-pay requirements in these programs, in part, to encourage market forces to serve as a check on health care costs, including the prices that pharmaceutical manufacturers can demand for their drugs. When a Medicare beneficiary obtains a prescription drug covered by Medicare Part B or Part D, the beneficiary may be required to make a partial payment, which may take the form of a co-payment, co-insurance, or deductible (collectively, copays). The amount of the settlement announced today was determined based on analysis of PSI’s ability to pay after review of its financial condition. (PSI), a foundation based in Midlothian, Virginia, has agreed to pay $3 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by acting as a conduit to enable certain pharmaceutical companies to provide kickbacks to Medicare patients taking the companies’ drugs by paying the patients’ copayments, the Department of Justice announced today.
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