MS Centers "laundered the money"

[Gabriella7]

In case anyone else here missed the connection as I did.....on the Serono lawsuit. June Halper of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers was consulted to handle the "money laundering" for these doctors at Multiple Sclerosis Centers. Ms. Halper and the CMSC had previously funneled money for Serono bribes to Dr. Dan Mikol of Ann Arbor, MI. Frank Timmons, Serono employee stated to Tim Amato, "We have a whole money laundering thing going on with June Halper.

The consortium was paid $30,000- $5,000 was kept as a "donation" and the rest was given to Dr. Bowling of the Rocky Mountain MS Center (2003-2007). Dr. Bowling is now Medical Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Service and Director of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Service at the Colorado Neurological Institute. He requested payment of $25,000 from Tim Amato, Serono employee) to prescribe Rebif.

He also asked Serono to purchase 200 copies of his MS book he had authored for $19.95 a copy. Tim Amato was later fired from Serono for being a "whistle blower". Tim later filed the lawsuit which was settled for a fine of $44 million by the U. S. government, because Serono illegally billed Medicaid and Medicare for their "pharma" kickbacks to neuros. June Halper is STILL at the CMSC as Executive Director--she is a certified adult nurse practitioner who has specialed in multiple sclerosis since 1978.

TOTAL money paid to CMSC by Serono to be laundered and paid as kickbacks to neuros; $447,336....and this was just one pharma company for a couple of years. How much pharma money did the CMSC collect and launder as payouts to neurologists? The part that got the feds involved, and why Serono was eventually fined is that these payments to CMSC and directly to neuologists were then billed to Medicaid and Medicare. But there has been no legal action taken against the doctors or CMSC for laundering money or accepting kickbacks.

Shouldn't these people be punished? Investigated? Arrested? should they still be allowed to work with people with multiple sclerosis? How can the CMSC expect anyone with MS to believe anything they say?

Reprinted from CCSVI in Multiple Sclerosis notes:

Gabriella

[agate]

A link might be helpful here. I think this must be the source:


http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150161466646184

Please note that the date of this Facebook post--by an author I for one know nothing about--is May 2011.

I recall that this matter was discussed here at the time. This thread is from the archives:

http://www.braintalkcommunities.org/...d.php?t=109042

[renee]

Ah-ha. now I remember this scandal but not with all those names.
My EX drug company, Serono.
Has Teva slithered on it's belly, too?

No admission of guilt so everyone keeps their job.

I think these scummers meet up in the Caymans and flip coins
to decide the next price increase.

[Gabriella7]

Thanks Agate (your memory is better than mine) for bringing up the former thread and links as I have absolutely NO memory of any of this discussion which happened over a year ago! I posted several replys on the thread but I don't have any recollection of doing so. I have been cleaning out old paperwork and came across the article which I couldn't get the link to work anymore so I typed all of it myself. Sorry to be repeating old news but maybe it needs to be repeated.

If I can I will be going to a presentation next week at a local restaurant (nice meal anyway) sponsored by Questcor Pharmaceuticals. This is what prompted me to bring it up again. After the publicity over the lawsuits came to light the presentations are now done by a NP rather than a neurologist. The NP is actually one from the MS Center that I have gone to since I was first diagnosed back in 2001. My neurologist is still telling me I have both multiple sclerosis (MRI brain lesions) as well as myasthenia gravis (positive Acth antibodies blood test)so he treated me for several months with IVIG infusions (it treats both diseases) until he stopped it after I reacted adversely to it. Since the really bad reaction and admittance to the hospital for 5 days.... I have lost a lot of my memory of events.

The program is "Take control of your MS relapses"." You will learn from an MS healthcare professional about a different FDA-approved treatment option and hear a firsthand account of a patient's experience with this treatment." quotes from flyer.... Since Questcor makes Acthar I am assuming this is what the presentation will be about. I don't actually have any "relapses" only continuing progression....I need to find out if this drug will treat progression?

Acthar was the next drug I was to try the month before I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis while I was in the hospital for what my neuro thought was a MS relapse. Not certain if my neurologist had the Acth antibody test done or the Hospitalist ordered it. I plan on getting my medical records as soon as I can to find out. It appears that the MS Center has included Questor as well as Biogen-Idec in their financial arrangements. My neurologist will keep me coming back forever if he can I'm certain even tho he has told me I am "secondary progressive" now. Since I have reacted badly to all the treatments so far he needs to come up with a new one.

The author of the article I posted is Joan Beal, activist for the CCSVI group, who posts on the "ThisisMS" site. They are trying to get clinical trials of the CCSVI procedure done in the US as are activist in Canada. As far as I know anyone who wants to get this procedure has to search other countries and pay out of their pockets $10,000+ to get it done. It is experimental as are the stem-cell treatments for MS which are being done in foreign countries as well. It just goes to show how desparate MS patients are to find something that will help. If I had $10,000 I might go for the stem-cell treatment in Costa Rica.

Blessings,
Gabriella

[Gabriella7]

While surfing the net last night I came across you tube videos made by a MS patient who is using Acthar Gel. She held up the vial which contained 5ml and stated it cost $23,000 for 5 injections! She said she was fortunate to have good insurance....or she could not afford the co-pay. BUT this is not a cure, folks, only a treatment used off-label for MS.

The price was raised in August 2007 from approx. $2,100. up to $23,000. according to the company release in order for them to continue supplying it. Does that make any sense? A lot of children who need this medication to live will not be able to get this medication. It is just used experimentally in MS and was not developed specifically for MS. This price increase is just plain greed!

And the greed goes on.......as I also found a video on the stock market report of Questcor Pharmaceuticals price increase causing a rise in value of their stocks. Then came Wall Street's greedy traders making a killing from selling off Questcor stocks.

This is legalized highway robbery in the modern day.

Gabriella