Another Omnicare-United Health Dispute
On Thursday, Omnicare, Inc. filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing UnitedHealth Group, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, ”of defrauding it through a price-fixing scheme on reimbursements for prescription drug sales to Medicare patients in nursing homes. The suit accuses UnitedHealth of Minneapolis and its newly acquired subsidiary, PacifiCare Health Systems, of fraud, conspiracy and federal and state antitrust violations.”
The article also reports that:
Omnicare, the nation’s biggest provider of drugs to nursing homes, said it reached separate agreements with UnitedHealth and PacifiCare last year to handle prescriptions. The July 2005 contract with UnitedHealth called for a premium prescription program offering a “fair” reimbursement rate for Omnicare. PacifiCare, however, refused to negotiate, giving Omnicare no choice but to sign a minimum-standards contract in December that paid lower reimbursements, Omnicare said. UnitedHealth bought PacifiCare for $8.8 billion on Dec. 20. Two days later, Omnicare said, UnitedHealth switched all of its Medicare patients to the PacifiCare contract. Omnicare said the move contradicted an Oct. 31 e-mail from UnitedHealth that the PacifiCare contract was a “unique” contract and that PacifiCare “will follow their own (Medicare) product strategy throughout the 2006 calendar year.” Omnicare said UnitedHealth planned all along to shift its prescription drug patients to the PacifiCare contract. It said its patients are being harmed by the conspiracy.
Technorati Tags: antitrust, Omnicare, United Health
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