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The University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey (UMDNJ) said it would accept federal oversight of its finances in the wake of a billing scandal that has seriously damaged the school's reputation. Yesterday, the Department of Justice warned UMDNJ that it faces criminal prosecution for overbilling the government Medicaid program by as much as $10 million over the past five years. A DOJ spokesman said the deal is the first time a public university has ever been assigned a federal monitor.

- see this article from The New York Times

Though subsidized by the federal government, private insurers are responsible for delivering Part D to Medicare recipients. Federal officials are now warning against aggressive tactics being used by some of these insurers and salespeople to market the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. According to CMS, some companies are going door to door to market plans. Others are asking for "inappropriate" information such as social security numbers and bank account information. A CMS spokesman …

The House Government Reform Committee issued a report which argues wholesalers like Costco and Drugstore.com are negotiating better prices from pharmaceutical companies than plans offered by insurers under Medicare Part D. According to the group, customers of the two chains enjoy prices on average 3 percent lower than those available at 10 leading Medicare drug plans. Democrats on the committee want the government to negotiate prices directly with drug companies. Under the 2003 Medicare …

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding said it has suspended shipments of Tamiflu to pharmacy benefit management companies and other wholesale distributors after receiving reports of distribution problems. A Roche spokesman told The New York Times that some companies have been building stockpiles of the antiviral to guard against a possible H5N1 outbreak but did not provide more specifics. The company said shipments will resume when flu season begins in earnest. For those …

A CNN report on possible mercy killings at New Orleans' Memorial hospital in the week following Hurricane Katrina has led the state's attorney general to announce a new investigation. The network is reporting new allegations that at the height of the crisis several doctors and a hospital administrator discussed the option. According to the CNN version, the administrator closed the conversation with the parting admonition that the doctors "should pray about it." Some experts interpret …

New York attorney general Elliot Spitzer is believed to have launched an investigation into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's sale of his position in HCA in July. The Wall Street Journal reports that the SEC is also looking into charges that Frist acted on insider information when he divested his shares in the company shortly before HCA issued an earnings warning. The Journal quotes "sources close to the investigation" as saying investigators will also look at similar sales by …

Contradicting earlier media reports which had suggested the government's release of discounted VistA-Office for physicians was about to be placed on "indefinite hold," CMS said the release of the software will go ahead as scheduled. On Monday, CMS spokesman Don McLeod denied that the product launch had been canceled, saying the release will probably go ahead "in the next couple of days." The plan to distribute the discounted product to physicians has run into some cynicism from …

A new report from AARP notes the average price of prescription drugs commonly taken by the elderly rose 6.6 percent this year, outpacing the rate of inflation. AARP researchers looked at pricing trends for 152 commonly prescribed medications. For the average American over the age of 65 who takes three brand name prescriptions, the price of a year's worth of medicine rose $866. A PhRMA spokesman questioned the accuracy of the AARP data, arguing that the numbers reviewed by the advocacy …

In potentially bad news for device manufacturers, a new study released today in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that patients whose arteries are propped open with drug-eluting stents may have a much higher risk of developing blood clots than had previously been supposed. Patients tracked in the study had a 1.03 percent chance of developing a blood clot. The study tracked the progress of 2,400 patients in Germany and Italy. Johnson & Johnson's Cyper stent …