Drug distributors strike US$300 million opioid settlement with US health plans
Source: Business Times
Published Sat, Aug 31, 2024 · 07:40 AM
THE three largest US drug distributors have agreed to pay US$300 million to resolve claims by health insurers and benefit plans that they helped fuel the deadly US opioid epidemic, according to court papers filed on Friday (Aug 30).
The proposed class action settlement with McKesson, Cencora and Cardinal Health was disclosed in a filing in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio, and requires a judges approval.
Those companies had previously agreed to pay US$21 billion to resolve claims by state and local governments accusing them of having lax controls that allowed massive amounts of addictive painkillers to be diverted into illegal channels.
Paul Geller, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that Fridays deal covered third-party payers like union funds that largely paid for the overprescribed and overmarketed pills and for the treatment required when their plan beneficiaries inevitably suffered opioid use disorder. The distributors did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
Read more: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/drug-distributors-strike-us300-million-opioid-settlement-us-health-plans
Farmer-Rick
(10,949 posts)One Uncle got hooked on it when he went to a doctor for back pain. They gave him the opioids, he got addicted, he tried to get off it by getting a decreasing prescription, no doctor would help him. He finally went cold turkey. And suffered horribly.
One of my in-laws, a doctor no less, got hooked on it for his neck pain. He was able to slowly withdraw but his addiction was so bad it almost ruined his career.
The damage they did to so many Americans can not be understated. Those who avoided getting caught in it really have no idea how doctors were so pushy with it, while claiming it was non-addictive. When patients inevitably got addicted they blamed the patients, and no rehab facilities would take opioid withdrawal patients at first.
It was the perfect nightmare.
Clouds Passing
(989 posts)They are genocidal. May much shame, humiliation and poverty beset them.
Zoomie1986
(1,213 posts)For the damage they've done, to people and entire communities.