BOSTON, MA – The Lown Institute, a healthcare think tank, has released the seventh edition of its Shkreli Awards, given each year to perpetrators of the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare. The “winners” are chosen with the help of a panel of judges made up of health policy experts, clinicians, journalists, and patient advocates. The awards are named for the infamous “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, known for obtaining the manufacturing rights of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim and marking up its price by over 5,000 percent.

“When you see all these stories in one place, they stop being anecdotes and start to tell a bigger story,” said Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute. “The need for more fairness and integrity in U.S. healthcare couldn’t be clearer.”

2023 Lown Institute Shkreli Award Winners

1. Columbia fails to stop OB-GYN from sexually assaulting patients despite years of complaints
2. Commonspirit nonprofit system pays CEO $35.5 million salary
3. Pharma claims Medicare drug price negotiation violates their constitutional rights 
4. Hospitals partner with private equity to offer medical credit cards
5. Vascular doctor allowed to keep practicing despite discipline in a dozen states 
6. GSK markets Zantac for decades despite potential carcinogenic compound 
7. Any narrowed artery seems a fair target for this alleged coronary stent king
8. Hospitals allegedly “dump” sick, homeless patients on the street
9. Physician payments help medical device maker test experimental products on poor, patients of color
10. Hospital threatens to ship expensive, comatose patient out of the country

A complete list of winners with descriptions, sources, and judges’ comments is available at the Lown Institute website.

### 

Join Lown Institute president Dr. Vikas Saini and guest panelists, award-winning author Harriet Washington and professor and activist Dr. Victor Montori, on Tuesday, January 9 at 1 p.m. ET for a countdown and discussion of this year’s winners.

About the Lown Institute

​​The Lown Institute is an independent think tank advocating bold ideas for a just and caring system for health. We envision a healthcare system focused on what’s best for people, like hospitals caring for those most in need, patients living without fear of financial distress, and health professionals finding joy in their roles. The Lown Hospitals Index, a signature project of the Institute, is the first ranking to assess the social responsibility of U.S. hospitals by applying measures never used before like racial inclusivity, avoidance of overuse, and pay equity.

Contact

Aaron Toleos, Lown Institute, (978) 821-4620, atoleos@lowninstitute.org

The post PRESS RELEASE: Biggest healthcare fails of 2023 named in 7th annual Shkreli Awards appeared first on Lown Institute.

We’ve also seen several updates on previous Shkreli Award winners, so it’s time for an edition of “Shkreli Awards: Where are they now?”

• Sackler immunity: The Sackler family received a Shkreli Award in 2021 for seeking immunity from civil lawsuits through a bankruptcy deal. This May, they got that immunity in exchange for $6 billion in an appeals court ruling.
• Envision bankruptcy: Envision, the private equity-backed physician staffing company, won a Shkreli Award in 2020 for cutting pay to physicians on the front lines of COVID-19 while spending millions on ads against surprise billing legislation. But after the legislation passed, their business model of overcharging patients for out-of-network ER care went down, and Envision filed for bankruptcy in May 2023.
• CMS audits MA insurers: Medicare Advantage insurers that overcharged the government for care won a Shkreli Award in 2022. In January 2023, CMS finalized their audit of MA insurers, which will bring back about $5 billion into Medicare coffers over the next decade. However, CMS is not extrapolating errors in coding from 2011-2017, letting insurers off the hook for years of overbilling. 
• J&J loses talc fight: Johnson & Johnson won a 2022 Shkreli Award for attempting to use a bankruptcy maneuver called the “Texas Two-Step” to avoid dozens of talc lawsuits. This tactic was rejected by a federal appeals court in January 2023 and the company has since agreed to a $9 billion settlement.
• Heart surgeon report: Catholic Medical Center received a Shkreli Award in 2022 for supporting their “star” heart surgeon Yvon Baribeau despite his alarming malpractice record. A report by an outside law firm released this month found that the hospital missed warning signs and mishandled concerns about Baribeau.

The post Shkreli Award Winners: Where are they now? appeared first on Lown Institute.

We named the Top 10 worst offenders at the Shkreli Awards, but they are not alone in their egregious acts of exploitation. Allow us to introduce you to our runner-ups, in no particular order. 

Hospital charges facility fee for patients who never set foot in the facility

When Arielle Harrison agreed to a telehealth visit with her son’s pediatrician specialist, the last thing she expected to get charged for a “facility fee.” But after scheduling the video appointment, Harrison was told by Yale New Haven Health that they would owe a facility fee because the doctor was taking the video call on hospital property, according to Kaiser Health News. Pat McCabe, senior vice president of finance at Yale New Haven Health System defended the practice, saying “[The facility fee] offsets the cost of the software we use to facilitate the telehealth visits, and we do still have to keep the lights on.”

Source: The Charges Seem Crazy’: Hospitals Impose a ‘Facility Fee’ — For a Video Visit – Kaiser Health News

Doctor who makes living from surprise billing sues feds for protecting patients from surprise bills

The “No Surprises Act,” which took effect in 2022, prevents privately insured patients from getting an out-of-network bill for emergency care. The law is almost universally popular… but one doctor isn’t happy. Dr. Daniel Haller, who works as an acute-care surgeon on Long Island, sued the federal government to have the law struck down, saying it violates his constitutional rights to bill patients for any “balance of the fair value” of his services. Haller argues that charging out-of-network rates is about doctors making a “fair living wage,” even though these out-of-network charges for emergency care are on average 637% of what Medicare pays for the same services. Haller’s lawsuit was dismissed by a New York judge in August 2022. 

Source: The doctor who is trying to bring back surprise billing – STAT;  Update at Reuters

Liberal prescription of Adderall helps telehealth app grow and retain patient base

The CEO of Cerebral, a telehealth startup, allegedly pushed employees to prescribe more stimulants to increase patient retention, according to a lawsuit brought by a former Cerebral executive. The lawsuit alleges Cerebral’s executives pushed for more prescriptions to retain subscribers. In May, it was reported that the DEA was investigating Cerebral and thus, the company halted all prescriptions of stimulants. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the government loosened regulations around prescribing schedule 2 controlled substances, allowing clinicians to prescribe them after an online visit. One project was designed to “nudge” clinicians toward preferred treatments, including stimulants for ADHD patients. A separate one sent emails to clinicians to push them to prescribe stimulants to 100% of ADHD patients without comorbidities.

Source: Mental health company execs encourage Adderall overprescription to keep patients using the app – Wall Street Journal; Bloomberg

Blood thinners are billion-dollar boondoggle for price-hiking pharma buddies

Anticoagulant drugs Eliquis and Xarelto were revolutionary when they hit the market in 2011 because they were safer than the previous standard of care. But as their popularity has grown over the past decade, so has their price, reported advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs. PAD’s 2022 report alleges that drug companies Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson have increased the prices of their drugs in lockstep, a practice known as “shadow pricing.” The prices for both of these drugs have more than doubled since 2011, and Eliquis and Xarelto are now the #1 and #3 most costly Medicare drugs, respectively.

Source: Eliquis and Xarelto: Lockstep Price Hike and Patent Gaming Exploits Patients and Taxpayers– Patients for Affordable Drugs

Government program designed to forgive student loans saddles healthcare workers with more debt

The National Health Service Corps offers a simple trade; work for 2 to 3 years in underserved areas and reduce your student debt in return. It’s a win-win for young clinicians who need financial assistance and communities in medical deserts with a dearth of providers.  But when COVID hit and clinics closed down and cut staff, healthcare workers were suddenly in violation of their contracts. Even though this was out of the workers’ control, the NHSC charged the workers’ interest and demanded pay for time unserved. Nurse practitioner Brandi Barrick, for example, entered the program to have $25,000 in student debt relieved – instead she ended up owing the federal government $85,557. 

Source:  Program to Cut Student Debt Sticks Some With Even More – The Wall Street Journal; Medical Program Offering Student-Debt Relief Takes Hard Line in Covid-19 Pandemic – WSJ 

The post 2022 Shkreli Awards: Dishonorable Mentions appeared first on Lown Institute.

BOSTON, MA – Martin Shkreli may be banned from the drug industry, but there are plenty of others competing to fill the shoes of the infamous “pharma bro.” The Lown Institute, a healthcare think tank, released the sixth edition of their Shkreli Awards, which are given each year to perpetrators of the ten most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare. The “winners” are chosen with the help of a panel of judges made up of patient advocates, health policy experts, clinicians, and journalists.  

“If we’re ever going to get to the great health system that Americans deserve, we have to call out bad behavior,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute. “The Shkreli Awards are a mirror that’s hard to look into, but we’ve got to do it. ”

2022 Lown Institute Shkreli Award Winners

1. Insurers systematically overbill Medicare Advantage, siphoning billions of taxpayer money
2. Private equity-backed firm runs rural hospitals into ground, leaves patients in unsafe conditions and employees without health insurance
3. System keeps community hospital on life support to cash in on drug discount program meant to serve the poor
4. Hospice CEO allegedly tells employees to hasten patient death to avoid caps on government reimbursements
5. Pharma giant exploits bankruptcy loophole to avoid legal responsibility for cancer-causing product
6. When smokers get sick, this tobacco company has the treatment 
7. Patients qualified for financial assistance; hospital sends them to debt collection instead
8. Medical labs bilk Medicare for $300 million in elaborate bribery scheme
9. “Dangerous” doctor deemed a star by hospital leadership despite disgraceful malpractice record.
10. Dentist bags a bundle by breaking patients’ teeth

A complete list of winners with descriptions, sources, and judges’ comments is available at the Lown Institute website.

### 

Join leaders of the Lown Institute and panelists Dr. Uché Blackstock, founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, and Amy Holden Jones, creator of the medical drama “The Resident” on Tuesday, January 10 at 1 p.m. ET for a countdown and discussion of this year’s winners.

About the Lown Institute

Founded in 1973 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Bernard Lown, MD, developer of the defibrillator and cardioverter, the Lown Institute believes that a radically better system of health is possible and generates bold ideas towards that goal. The Lown Hospitals Index, a signature project of the Institute, is the first ranking to assess the social responsibility of U.S. hospitals by applying measures never used before like racial inclusivity, avoidance of overuse, and pay equity.

Contact

Aaron Toleos, Lown Institute, (978) 821-4620, atoleos@lowninstitute.org

The post PRESS RELEASE: Healthcare’s biggest baddies named and blamed in 2022 Shkreli Awards appeared first on Lown Institute.

The Shkreli Awards are named after the infamous “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of pharmaceutical companies Retrophin and Turing, who raised the price of the drug Daraprim by over 5,000%. This drug in particular was used for HIV/AIDS and cancer patients. After facing immediate backlash, Shkreli doubled down on his decision and told the Financial Times, “to me, the drug was woefully underpriced.” He was convicted on three fraud charges in August 2017. In January of this year, a federal judge ordered Shkreli to return the $64.6 million in profits that he had taken in from the drug hike.

Shkreli is just one face of a deeply broken system though. Every year, other bad actors embrace his capitalism-at-all-costs approach to the detriment of their fellow humans, and they deserve public awareness too. Last year, our winners were “innovative” profiteers, who had particularly creative ways of milking the health system for money. Our countdown began with suppository users experiencing the discomfort of a 5,000% price increase, similar to Daraprim. Other winners included a hospital steering patients to the ER for COVID testing to inflate their bills; a drug manufacturer developing a COVID pill with federal funds and then charging patients 40x its production cost, and the Sackler family slithering out of paying their opioid crisis victims.

It can be depressing to work and interact with a system as dysfunctional as the American healthcare system. That’s why we at the Lown Institute host the Shkreli Awards – to poke fun at the ludicrous behavior of some of the worst actors in this system.

“By displaying all of this shocking material in one place, we hope to build demand for a better system.”

Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute

Join us on Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at 1 pm ET as we countdown the winners this year.

The post Get ready for the 2022 Shkreli Awards! appeared first on Lown Institute.

Now that Martin Shkreli faces a $64 million fine and lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry, we hope to see similar accountability for these nominees– and sooner than five years from now…

Hospitals refuse to comply with price transparency rule designed to help consumers 

For years, consumers have been unable to compare prices between hospitals because they were kept secret. Thanks to a government rule that went into effect January 2021, hospitals are now required to publish consumer-friendly prices for hundreds of “shoppable services.” This should be a boon for patients, but according to a June 2021 study, as many as half of US hospitals had failed to comply with this requirement. Other hospitals published their prices, but added code to the data that prevented these pages from showing up in web searches, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

SOURCES: Suhas Gondi et al., JAMA Internal Medicine; ​​Tom McGinty, Anna Wilde Matthews, and Melanie Evans, The Wall Street Journal

Health systems allow big donors, board members, and executives to cut the line for Covid-19 vaccines 

Several health systems made the news (and one triggered an FBI investigation) for making special arrangements to get Covid-19 vaccines to VIPs. In January 2021, MorseLife Health System, a nonprofit that operates a nursing home and assisted living facility in West Palm Beach, FL, reportedly offered donors and members of the board access to vaccines that were intended only for residents and staff of long-term care facilities. 

The same month, the Seattle Times reported that three Seattle hospitals gave special vaccine access to donors or board members through invite-only clinics or appointments, prompting rebukes from the Seattle mayor, state governor, and the state department of health.  

And Chicago’s Loretto Hospital admitted in March 2021 to vaccinating the CFO’s neighbors and the staff at his favorite high-end restaurants and stores, who were not eligible for the shot at the time; the CFO resigned and the FBI is currently investigating.

SOURCES: Isaac Stanley-Becker and Shawn Boburg, The Washington Post; Evan Bush, Mike Reicher and Sydney Brownstone, Seattle Times; Kelly Bauer and David Jackson, Block Club Chicago

Doctor trades opioid prescriptions for unnecessary spinal injections

In September 2021, a Michigan doctor was convicted of defrauding Medicare out of $100 million by “by administering medically unnecessary spinal injections in exchange for prescriptions of high doses of opioids to patients,” according to the US Department of Justice. Dr. Francisco Patino prescribed an excessive amount of highly-addictive opioid pills — in 2016 and 2017, he prescribed more 30-mg Oxycodone pills than any other doctor in Michigan. In exchange for these prescriptions, he gave patients spinal injections and billed the cost to Medicare. If patients refused to get the injections, he withheld the prescriptions, the DOJ found.

SOURCE: US Department of Justice

Thanks to Lown Weekly reader Johanna Ryan for submitting this nomination!

Cancer center fails to report results of clinical trial for over 15 years 

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center completed a clinical trial of targeted irradiation for patients with metastasizing brain tumors in 2005, but they still haven’t reported the results of the trial publicly, Stat News reported. The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, an independent German agency that assesses the effectiveness of medicines, noticed that the results were missing when they attempted to compare targeted irradiation with other cancer treatments. MD Anderson also refused to share the results with IQEHC upon their request. US law requires trial sponsors to report clinical trial results no later than one year after the study’s completion date, but trial sponsors frequently miss or ignore this deadline.

SOURCE: Ed Silverman, Stat News

Thanks to Lown Weekly reader Till Bruckner for submitting this nomination!

Florida’s program to cover medical expenses for brain-damaged children denied claims for necessary therapies

A ProPublica/Miami Herald investigation found that Florida’s $1.5 billion program to cover medical expenses for children with severe brain injuries routinely denied and delayed paying for needed treatment. A 2021 audit showed that case managers had no system for determining whether requested services were medically necessary; sometimes they just used Google.

In response to the investigation, all members of the program’s board resigned, and the Florida legislature passed a law giving additional cash assistance to families and clarifying that the Florida program be administered with the best interests of children in mind.  

​​SOURCE: Carol Marbin Miller and Daniel Chang, Propublica/The Miami Herald

Doctors make millions pushing unproven and harmful medications for Covid-19

A group called “America’s Frontline Doctors” has not only spread dangerous misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine, they are making money off it, The Intercept reports. AFD partnered with a telehealth company to facilitate $90 “consultations” with patients, in which they prescribed unproven drugs for Covid-19 like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Patients have spent an estimated $15 million on these consultations and medications. 

SOURCE: Micah Lee, The Intercept 

The post Shkreli Awards: Dishonorable Mentions appeared first on Lown Institute.

From a $350 suppository to an unproven drug that could cost Medicare billions, here are this year’s worst examples of greed and dysfunction in health care.

Boston, MA – When we think of innovation in health care, we expect it to be focused on medical treatments and technologies that save lives. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes innovation means finding creative ways to squeeze money from the system and the patients it serves. 

The Shkreli Awards, named for infamous “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, are awarded each year to perpetrators of the ten most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in health care. This is the fifth year that the Lown Institute, a health care think tank, has given out the awards, along with the help of a panel of judges made up of clinicians, health policy experts, journalists, and patient advocates.

“The pandemic has not slowed the brazen chase for profits by many in the healthcare industry,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute. “By displaying all of this shocking material in one place, we hope to build demand for a better system.”

2021 Lown Institute Shkreli Award Winners

1. FDA fast-tracks unproven drug, defying its own advisory committee and putting millions of older Americans at risk
2. Family at heart of opioid crisis offered immunity despite harm to millions and deaths of hundreds of thousands
3. Catholic hospital system with mission to serve the “poor and vulnerable” creates billion dollar private equity fund while cutting services at safety nets
4. Drug manufacturer prices Covid-19 pill developed with federal funds at 40x its production cost
5. Hospital system files 19,000 lawsuits for unpaid medical bills, while receiving $700 million in Covid bailout funds
6. Hospital claims Medicaid doesn’t count as insurance, raids accident victims’ settlements instead
7. Woman leaves ER after waiting seven hours without being seen, hospital charges $700
8. Hospital steers patients to ER for Covid-19 testing, inflating bill as much as 30 times
9. Pharma companies use “charitable giving” to increase sales of their overpriced drugs
10. Suppository users experience discomfort of 5000% price increase

A complete list of winners with descriptions, sources, and judges’ comments is available at the Lown Institute website.

### 

Join leaders of the Lown Institute and panelists Will Flanary (aka Dr. Glaucomflecken) and Gregg Gonsalves, epidemiologist and AIDS activist, on Tuesday, January 11 at 1 p.m. ET for a countdown and discussion of this year’s winners.

About the Lown Institute

Founded in 1973 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Bernard Lown, MD, developer of the defibrillator and cardioverter, the Lown Institute believes that a radically better system of health is possible and generates bold ideas towards that goal. The Lown Hospitals Index, a signature project of the Institute, is the first ranking to assess the social responsibility of U.S. hospitals by applying measures never used before like racial inclusivity, avoidance of overuse, and pay equity.

Contact

Aaron Toleos, Lown Institute, (978) 821-4620, atoleos@lowninstitute.org

The post PRESS RELEASE: Top ten healthcare profiteers named in 2021 Shkreli Awards appeared first on Lown Institute.

Drug company claims Covid-19 is a “rare disease” in bid to gain monopoly protections.

In March 2020, Gilead sought monopoly rights for its antiviral drug remdesivir under the Orphan Drug Act, with the justification that only a few Americans had Covid-19 at the time, so it qualified as a “rare disease.” The FDA approved Gilead’s request, but intense public backlash led Gilead to ask the FDA to revoke its orphan drug designation.

Source: JAMA Internal Medicine

Colluding cancer hospital nets massive federal bailout.

Despite being fined $120 million in April for conspiring with other cancer treatment providers to limit competition and raise prices, Florida Cancer Specialists still received $67 million in the first round of federal bailouts– the most of any cancer-specific provider in the country.

Source: Tampa Bay Times

ER doc charged $11K for Covid-19 test by own employer.

When an ER doctor from Physician Premier ER went to get an antibody test at his own facility, his insurance was billed $10,984, even though the testing materials only cost about $8. It was a simple blood test that took just 30 minutes. The insurance company paid the entire bill, but in the big picture, the American people are paying the cost in the form of rising premiums.

Sources: ProPublica/Texas Tribune

Hospitals continue to aggressively collect medical debt during the pandemic.

Seven Wisconsin hospital systems filed 104 lawsuits against patients just in the three weeks after the governor declared a public health emergency. Some hospitals dropped the lawsuits after an investigation by journalist watchdog Wisconsin Watch, but Froedert South Hospital in Kenosha has filed at least 230 lawsuits since April.

Similarly, the University of Virginia was called out this fall for continuing to use property liens to collect medical debt from patients, even though they pledged last year to stop suing patients. This means that when patients (or even their family members) sell their home, UVA seizes a cut of the equity– plus interest.

Sources: Wisconsin Watch, Associated Press, Kaiser Health News

Hospital assumes Native American mothers have Covid-19, separates them from newborns.

Lovelace Woman’s Hospital in Albuquerque, NM, allegedly targeted pregnant Native American women for Covid-19 testing based only on their zip code, regardless of whether there was an outbreak in that area. As a result, mothers were separated from their newborns for days until test results came in, depriving them of essential close contact with their infants.

One hospital clinician who blew the whistle said, “We seem to be specifically picking out patients from Native communities as at-risk whether or not there are outbreaks at their specific pueblo or reservation. I believe this policy is racial profiling.”

Source: ProPublica

Public agency downgrades PPE guidance for hospital workers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention downgraded its guidance for personal protective equipment (PPE) on March 10, 2020, opening the door for hospitals to provide only surgical masks to health care workers treating confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients, and putting the lives of health care workers at risk. Health care professionals were especially alarmed by the CDC’s guidance that bandanas or scarves could be used as a last resort if no masks were available. The CDC guidance change came after intense lobbying from hospitals and public health departments.

Sources: Business Insider, Reveal

Feds target bailout money to hospitals with the most wealth, not the most Covid-19 patients.

In April 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allocated the first $50 billion in health provider bailouts based on their historical share of Medicare revenue, not based on where the most Covid-19 cases were located. This gave some of the largest bailout checks to hospitals that were already wealthy and left out hospitals that were overrun with Covid-19 patients (particularly those that care for more Medicaid patients). Twenty large hospital chains received more than $5 billion in the first round of federal government bailouts, even though they already had more than $108 billion in cash on hand. 

Sources: Kaiser Health News, The New York Times

The post Shkreli Awards: “Dishonorable Mentions” appeared first on Lown Institute.

Featured guests included Mona Hanna-Attisha, pediatrician and public health advocate whose research exposed the Flint water crisis, and Don Berwick, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They joined Lown Institute leaders Vikas Saini and Shannon Brownlee to host the event.

To see all of the winners and the judges comments, visit the Shkreli 2020 page!

The post VIDEO: 2020 Shkreli Awards countdown! appeared first on Lown Institute.

Visit the official Shkreli 2020 Awards page >>

Brookline, Mass — Pharmaceutical companies and hospitals are at the forefront of the medical response to the pandemic, but they also dominate the 2020 Lown Institute Shkreli Awards for committing acts of greed and indifference in the face of great suffering. The number one spot, however, goes to the federal government’s PPE task force. Instead of coordinating with states to get lifesaving supplies distributed quickly, they handed the PPE over to private companies, leaving states to compete with each other in an overheated market while a national crisis raged.

The Shkreli Awards, named for the infamous “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, are awarded each year to perpetrators of the ten most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in health care. This is the fourth year the awards have been bestowed by the Lown Institute, a health care think tank that believes a radically better health system is possible. “Winners” are judged by a panel of clinicians, health policy experts, journalists, and patient advocates.

“The pandemic called for civic leadership in health care like never before, and these awardees weren’t listening,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, President of the Lown Institute. “They’re signals of deep dysfunction that must be addressed if Americans are to have the healthcare system they want and need.”

2020 Lown Institute Shkreli Award Winners:

1. Federal PPE task force gives lifesaving supplies to private companies to distribute, creating bidding wars and delay
2. Drug company Moderna uses $1 Billion in taxpayer funding to develop Covid-19 vaccine, sets highest price of any vaccine-maker
3. Hospitals with extra beds refuse to take uninsured patients from overrun neighboring hospitals
4. Nursing homes fail to protect most vulnerable Americans from Covid-19
5. Big pharma rejects global effort to cooperate on Covid-19, competes for profit instead
6. Hospital CEO pens op-ed justifying high vaccine prices, neglects to disclose $487,000 conflict of interest
7. Hospitals punish mask-wearing clinicians for “scaring the public”
8. Connecticut doctor uses town’s Covid-19 testing sites to bilk residents
9. Pandemic profiteers peddle fake and potentially harmful Covid-19 cures
10. Private-equity backed companies spend millions to protect surprise billing practices, while cutting physician pay and pocketing millions of pandemic relief dollars

A complete list of winners with descriptions, sources, and judges’ comments is available at www.LownInstitute.org/shkreli-2020.

About the Lown Institute

Founded in 1973 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Bernard Lown, MD, developer of the defibrillator and cardioverter, the Lown Institute advances civic leadership, accountability, and value in health care. The Institute believes a radically better system of health is possible and advances bold ideas to achieve this. Their signature project is the Lown Hospitals Index. It’s the first hospital ranking focused on civic leadership and includes measures like inclusivity by race, avoidance of overuse, and pay equity.

Contact

Aaron Toleos, Lown Institute, (978) 821-4620, atoleos@lowninstitute.org

The post PRESS RELEASE: Top-ten pandemic profiteers, health system malfunctions take spotlight in 2020 Shkreli Awards appeared first on Lown Institute.