Those of us who have been covering the dark side of the medical industry for the past decade or so are fully aware that the medical system kills more people in the U.S. than any disease, using the medical system’s own data. This is seldom, if ever, published in the corporate media which is largely funded by the pharmaceutical industry today.
The other fact that is well-known to most of us in the alternative media is that the pharmaceutical industry leads the U.S. in criminal fraud.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ) website, the pharmaceutical industry is the largest offender of criminal fraud based on settlements and judgments for the False Claims Act.
From 2009 through 2016, Health Care Fraud resulted in $19.3 billion for fraud, with “billions more during the same period for state Medicaid programs and in criminal fines and forfeitures.” (Source.)
Housing and Financial Fraud was a distant second during the same time period, at $7 billion.
In 2017, according to the DOJ:
Of the $3.7 billion in settlements and judgments, $2.4 billion involved the health care industry, including drug companies, hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, and physicians. This is the eighth consecutive year that the department’s civil health care fraud settlements and judgments have exceeded $2 billion.
In 2018, settlements and judgments for fraud against the health care industry again exceeded $2 billion according to the DOJ:
Of the $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments recovered by the Department of Justice this past fiscal year, $2.5 billion involved the health care industry, including drug and medical device manufacturers, managed care providers, hospitals, pharmacies, hospice organizations, laboratories, and physicians.
This is the ninth consecutive year that the Department’s civil health care fraud settlements and judgments have exceeded $2 billion. The recoveries included in the $2.5 billion reflect only federal losses but, in many of these cases, the Department was instrumental in recovering additional millions of dollars for state Medicaid programs.
Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal until 2004, wrote an opinion piece in 2013 about a book published by Peter Gøtzsche, the head of the Nordic Cochrane Centre, entitled “Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare.”
Read the rest here: Health Impact News
