A Chicago Tribune investigation recently showed how many frail and vulnerable Illinois nursing home residents have been unnecessarily dosed with anti-psychotics, leading to harm and an increased risk of death. One psychiatrist, the Tribune found in a joint investigation with ProPublica, provided assembly-line care to thousands of mentally ill patients.
Medicare has stopped reimbursing a Miami psychiatrist who prescribed about 96,685 mental health drugs to Medicaid patients in 18 months. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said the figures are alarming and has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate Dr. Fernando Mendez Villamil and other top prescribers.
The letter from Senator Grassley does not mention Fernando Mendez-Villamil by name, but it cites documents from the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration about a prescriber who wrote 96,685 prescriptions for from the last quarter of 2007 through the first quarter of 2009 for Medicaid patients. Mendez-Villamil wrote nearly twice as many prescriptions for psychiatric drugs as the No. 2 Medicaid prescriber in the state.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff sued the company after a nearly four-year investigation revealed that Lilly concealed its knowledge of significant weight gain and obesity associated with the anti-psychotic medication Zyprexa. Investigators also showed that Lilly’s sales representatives illegally promoted the drug for uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Eli Lilly & Co. agreed to settle, on confidential terms, lawsuits filed by seven states alleging the company improperly marketed its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. The state lawsuits were seeking reimbursement for funds spent on Medicaid, the government health program for the poor. Zyprexa, part of a class of medications called atypical antipsychotics, has been linked to excessive weight gain and diabetes. The lawsuits also claim Lilly failed to properly warn of Zyprexa’s side effects.