The 2024 “winners” of the annual competition Shkreli Priceawarded annually to the perpetrators of the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction within the healthcare industry, were published by the Lown Institute, an independent healthcare think tank.
Recipients are chosen by a committee comprised of health policy experts, clinicians, journalists and advocates. The prices are named Martin Shkrelithe infamous “pharmaceutical brother” who gained international notoriety after raising the price of the life-saving anti-parasitic drug Daraprim 50-fold.
“All of these stories paint a picture of a healthcare sector in desperate need of transformation. In 2024, care practices have been put in the spotlight,” said Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, during the ceremony.
“But giving these awards every year shows us that this is nothing new. We hope these stories will illuminate needed changes.
10th place this year went to the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth for allegedly failing to notify next of kin before selling body parts of deceased people.
A NBC News The investigation found that the school did not properly receive consent from the deceased or their family members before dissecting and distributing the unclaimed bodies, despite the network’s findings that the family members were fairly easy to identify and contact.
Ninth place went to the outdated practice of cutting babies’ tongues, which continues to be falsely touted as a cure for several illnesses, from sleep apnea to breastfeeding problems, according to the New York Times.
The questionable billing practices of Zynex Medical, a company specializing in nerve stimulation devices used for pain management, took 8th place. Patients received Zynex devices knowing the expenses would be covered by insurance, according to a report from Statistical news. Users then received unsolicited supplies of items such as batteries and electrodes (in often excessive quantities), for which they were ultimately charged. The report indicates that nearly 70% of Zynex’s $184 million in revenue in 2023 came from batteries and electrodes.
“This is simply classic overcharging. It’s a fraud,” said Patricia Kelmar, senior director of the US Pirg research group and a judge on the panel. “Patients feel they owe money because they have already received the supplies. We see a lot of this type of abuse in the area of pain management.
Seventh place went to the case of Sara England and her grandson, Amari Vaca. After the three-month-old suffered severe respiratory distress two months after open-heart surgery, doctors at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California, chose to take him in. transferred by air ambulance at a medical center in San Francisco. He recovered and Cigna later deemed the service “not medically necessary.” The family received a bill for $97,599.
“It’s happening everywhere,” Kelmar said. “The insurance denial here is that it should have been a ground ambulance instead of an air ambulance, but how is the patient supposed to know that? This is a mother who follows the advice of doctors.
At number 6 was Medicare’s massive billing for urinary catheters. As many as 450,000 beneficiaries had catheter bills submitted on their behalf in 2023, representing an 800% increase from previous years. Just seven suppliers were responsible for $2 billion from these suspicious charges.
Fifth place goes to Memorial Medical Center (a former nonprofit turned for-profit) in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for allegations of deny cancer treatment to patients or require upfront payments, even from those who have insurance.
ProPublica’s discovery of a once-famous oncologist’s pattern of behavior professional misconduct and traces of suspicious deaths came in at number 4. Dr. Thomas C Weiner of Helena, Montana, allegedly subjected a patient to unnecessary cancer treatments for more than a decade, amid myriad other shocking revelations.
Lumakras, an anticancer drug from Amgen that has been received accelerated approval from the FDA at a daily dose of 960 mg, despite findings that a dose of 240 mg provided similar effectiveness with reduced toxicity and risk of side effects, took third place.
“Pharmaceutical companies also have an incentive to get a return on their profits,” Kelmar said. “The healthcare industry is a business and companies will try to get the highest profits possible.”
At number 2 was the the giant that is UnitedHealth and how it became the fourth largest company in the country. United doctors reported pressure to reduce time spent with patients and make them as sick as possible through aggressive medical coding tactics.
In a very competitive year, first place went to Steward Health Care, whose CEO, Ralph de la Torre, is accused of prioritizing private equity profits on patient care. His financial intrigues led to bankruptcy, leaving hospitals in ruins, employees laid off and communities with less access to health care.
“I mean it’s our backyard,” Saini said.
“What was happening here had been planned for many years. And if we knew that, then we should ask ourselves: “Where are the regulators?” Where are the people who should have been better informed? »