ITV Tonight is out with Merseyside Police to investigate the extraordinary impact the pandemic is having on their ability to combat crime.

Le Temps newspaper says the chalet was bought in 2014.

The report stated that the groups identified are not an exhaustive list of essential employees.

Relieved Australian cruise passengers flown home from Uruguay might care to reflect on another humanitarian act nearly 50 years ago.

A new union-released report accuses Qantas of downplaying the risks of coronavirus before an outbreak at Adelaide Airport — but the airline has denied any wrongdoing.

Politicians, scientists, business leaders and artists will take part in the five-day public reading of a more than 500-page landmark climate change report this week.

THE same process used by an international matchmaking site to pair lonely hearts may hold the key to improving the outcomes of liver transplants.

The Australian Department of Health says it does not endorse any cleaning company in relation to COVID-19 and warns businesses not to use a free online course in their marketing materials.

Police and paramedics are at the scene of a fatal industrial accident at Truro north of Adelaide, where a man has been killed.

One of Adelaide's most historic music venues, which has hosted some of the world's biggest artists, could be forced to close due to a lack of support amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Adelaide landmarks were illuminated with blue light overnight amid more tributes for SA Police Chief Superintendent Joanne Shanahan and Tania McNeill, who were killed in a three-car crash on Saturday.

The number of Adelaide rail services has been radically reduced after a mechanical fault, with remaining trains becoming packed with passengers apparently in breach of social distancing.

Les services psychologiques devraient être intégrés dans le régime public pour bénéficier à l’ensemble de la population, plaide le PLQ.

Les employés en chômage, les étudiants désœuvrés, les agriculteurs dans l’impasse... il n’y a pas une semaine sans qu’Ottawa sorte un programme.

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie will testify at a House of Commons standing committee on finance on Thursday. The appearance on a videoconference will come nine days after news broke that the CFL had asked the federal government for up to $150 million in financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is addressing Canadians from outside his Rideau Cottage home, a day after announcing more support from the federal government is on its way to assist certain sectors of the economy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Des restaurateurs ont fait preuve de créativité et d’efficacité en élaborant un menu pour emporter.

With a lack of clear instruction from above, the local competitions and clubs have taken matters into their own hands.

The Warriors go down to the Raiders during their indefinite NRL road trip in Australia caused by the coronavirus pandemic, while the Storm and Sea Eagles manage wins.

The Government's proposed JobKeeper payment is set to move the goalposts in desperate negotiations between sporting codes and their players amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Young Adelaide Crows forward Tyson Stengle has been reported for drink driving after he recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.125. He is the second AFL player to be caught up in a drink driving offence in the last 24 hours.

Despite more relaxed coronavirus restrictions in South Australia and Western Australia, the AFL says it does not want clubs from those states training in bigger groups until Victorian teams are allowed to do so.

A Victoria Police senior constable from the southern metropolitan area is suspended over the unauthorised leak of photos of former AFL coach Dean Laidley in custody on the weekend. The officer is the second to be suspended over the incident.

The restart of the NRL could be jeopardised as Raiders forwards Sia Soliola, Joe Tapine and Josh Papalli join Titans forward Bryce Cartwright in refusing to sign an unedited version of the vaccination waiver.

The Adelaide Crows will be dealt with in an "educative way rather than a punitive way", police say, after players broke coronavirus quarantine guidelines during a training session.

"Short Circuit," "Twister" and "Crimson Tide" are also in the running for this week's crown in the #UltimateSummerMovie Showdown.

In March, Hollywood unions applauded a government package to help entertainment gig workers. Flaws in the rollout meant many couldn't access it.

Medicaid and other parts of the healthcare safety net get left behind in the Trump administration's plans for distributing aid to battle the coronavirus.

De Blasio says he needs Trump to lift New York City from the ashes of COVID-19. But the president says no 'bailout' is coming for his old hometown.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) called on the Trump administration to address the lack of financial relief for Medicaid providers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The two Committee leaders voiced concerns that, to date, roughly $70 billion has been distributed to health care providers under the CARES Act in a way that discriminates against Medicaid-dependent health care providers. “HHS’s continued neglect for the needs of Medicaid-dependent providers struggling to deal with the COVID-19 crisis is unacceptable,” the members wrote. “The country is in the middle of a pandemic. The Medicaid program is a first responder, and the providers it relies on must be treated with equity. At a bare minimum that should include expeditious access to the [provider fund] as intended by Congress.”  The Provider Relief Fund that Congress created as a part of the CARES Act, within the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund (PHSSEF), was intended to support health care providers including those who participate in Medicare and Medicaid. However, to date only Medicare-enrolled providers have been able to access funds, and these funds are being allocated according to a methodology that rewards providers with high levels of privately-insured individuals while providers supporting the safety net are left waiting. This imbalance discriminates against critical health care providers that primarily service the Medicaid population, such as frontline hospitals, nursing homes and home-based providers, behavioral health providers, maternal health care providers and pediatricians. In the letter, sent to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, Pallone and Wyden called on the Trump administration to describe how much funding will go to Medicaid-dependent providers and the steps it has taken to understand the needs of these providers during the pandemic. The full letter is available here. ###

Informa Connect-CBI’s 22nd Annual Medicaid and Government Pricing Congress
May 19-21, 2020 | Orlando, FL
www.cbinet.com/medicaidandgovernment

Exclusive Offer: Register by April 10th and save $500* (mention promo code MDCDC5).

With a volatile healthcare system combined with an election year upon us, the stakes are incredibly high for life sciences manufacturers. Staying on the pulse of industry trends, policies and regulations has never been more critical. The 22nd Annual Medicaid and Government Pricing Congress delivers critical updates and industry best practices to effectively contract, report and comply with state and federal healthcare programs. Gain timely, up-to-the-minute insights on:

• State Invoicing and Disputes
• GTN Models
• Innovative Contracting Strategies
• State Price Transparency and Reporting Requirements
• 340B Oversight and Compliance
• Preparing, Negotiating and Implementing FSS Contracts
• Bona Fide Service Fees and FMV
• And many other critical topics

Download the complete program agenda.

The 2020 agenda features 75+ speakers and 50+ sessions customizable by company type and size, as well as 10 hours of dedicated networking. Bio/pharma, regulatory and government experts representing HHS, Pfizer, Daiichi Sankyo, Sobi, Maryland Department of Health, BMS, Jazz, Novartis, Amneal, J&J, Sunovion, Gilead, VA, Granard, Insmed, UCB, Alnylam, Louisiana Department of Health, AstraZeneca, CMS, CSL Behring, Astellas, Lilly, Oklahoma Healthcare Authority, Theravance, Indivior, Sandoz, Alvogen, Takeda, OIG, AMAG, Aimmune, Exelixis, South Dakota Department of Healthcare Services, Regeneron, Sun Pharma, Teva and many others are set to drive the dynamic dialogue.

Drug Channels readers can register today and use promo code MDCDC5 to save $500.

*Discount offer valid through 4/10/2020; applies to standard rates only and may not be combined with other offers, categories, promotions or applied to an existing registration. Offer not valid on workshop-only or non-profit registrations.

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The content of Sponsored Posts does not necessarily reflect the views of Pembroke Consulting, Inc., Drug Channels, or any of its employees.

The U.S. economy is in a medically-induced coma. Unemployment is soaring. Companies are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. It is unclear when our lives will return to their pre-pandemic state.

One thing seems apparent: As people lose jobs and health insurance, Medicaid enrollment will jump, perhaps by as much as 20% to 30%. This will have profound implications for the drug channel.

Today, I focus on how this increase will affect retail pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Below, I review Medicaid enrollment trends, how states manage prescriptions, and the factors driving the coming boom in Medicaid enrollment.

As I explain, many (but not all) retail pharmacies will benefit from Medicaid growth. PBMs, however, will not fare as well. Read on and see if you agree.

In early May, Drug Channels Institute will host two live video webinars: Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: Retail & Specialty Pharmacies (May 1) and Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: PBMs & Payers (May 8). CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND SIGN UP. DCI will donate 20% of all profits from these events to The Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

Read more »

Patients were used as guinea pigs but denied access to resulting therapies. This time, Big Pharma must be held to account

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

The year I turned 11, my uncle Josiah Ssesanga was admitted to a hospital in Uganda with meningitis. It was 1994, and he was HIV positive. Between him and death stood a tattered post-civil war health system.

Treatments for HIV and Aids existed in other parts of the world, but in Uganda they were mostly limited to those used in clinical trials. For my uncle’s particular infection – cryptococcal meningitis – there was a drug called Fluconazole. But he didn’t know it existed; regardless, he wouldn’t have been able to afford it. and even among patients who took it, only 12% survived beyond six months.

Related: Macron calls for clinical trials of controversial coronavirus 'cure'

Related: Fear, bigotry and misinformation – this reminds me of the 1980s Aids pandemic | Edmund White

Continue reading...

Alexander Tajong, a Bronx, N.Y.-based return preparer, was charged today with twenty counts of willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of false income tax returns for 10 of his clients during the 2002 and 2003 tax years.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) has agreed to pay the United States $2 million to resolve federal civil fraud allegations that its hospital defrauded Medicaid. From 1993 to 2004, UMDNJ’s University Hospital submitted claims to Medicaid for outpatient physician services that were also being billed by doctors working in the hospital’s outpatient centers.

An individual pleaded guilty today in federal court in Detroit for his role in creating and marketing software designed and used to send bulk commercial e-mails, known as "spam," in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The Department released a new technical assistance fact sheet on legal requirements relating to admitting individuals with HIV or AIDS to occupational training schools and granting state licensure in occupations such as barbering, massage therapy and home health care assistance.

The state of New York and New York City have agreed to pay $540 million to settle allegations that they knowingly submitted, or caused to be submitted, false claims for reimbursement for school-based health care services, primarily speech therapy and transportation, provided to Medicaid eligible children from 1990 to 2001. The settlement is a record federal recovery by the Justice Department for the Medicaid Program.

Former UBS banker, Bradley Birkenfeld of Weymouth, Mass., has been sentenced to 40 months incarceration by Judge William J. Zloch in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. On June 19, 2008, Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States.

The former director of sales and marketing for Pacific Consolidated Industries LP (PCI) pleaded guilty today to charges related to the bribery of a U.K. Ministry of Defense (UK-MOD) official in order to obtain lucrative equipment contracts with the U.K. Royal Air Force, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Mylan Pharmaceuticals, UDL Laboratories, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical have entered into settlement agreements for a total of $124 million to resolve claims that they violated the False Claims Act by failing to pay appropriate rebates to state Medicaid programs for drugs paid for by those programs.

The United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia have intervened in a False Claims Act suit in the Western District of Virginia against the Medicaid providers Universal Health Services Inc., Keystone Marion LLC and Keystone Education and Youth Services LLC.

Ryan Scott McMonigle, of Ponca City, Okla., pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to solicit a kickback in connection with the award of a private security services subcontract to protect U.S. government personnel and contractors in Afghanistan.

"After a thorough review of the evidence, the division has determined that the proposed transaction is not likely to substantially lessen competition in the United States."

Eon Labs Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $3.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations relating to the company's drug Nitroglycerin Sustained Release (SR) capsules.

The United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia have filed a False Claims Act complaint in the Western District of Virginia against Medicaid providers Universal Health Services Inc., Keystone Marion LLC and Keystone Education and Youth Services LLC.

Two Baton Rouge, La., tax return preparers were indicted today on charges of aiding in the preparation of false tax returns, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced

The United States has intervened in a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging that Satilla Health Services Inc., dba Satilla Regional Medical Center, and Dr. Najam Azmat submitted claims for medically substandard and unnecessary services to Medicare and Medicaid.

The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and one of its former member hospitals, The Christ Hospital, have agreed to pay the United States $108 million to settle claims that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by paying unlawful remuneration to doctors in exchange for referring cardiac patients to The Christ Hospital in a pay-to-play scheme.

Today, the U.S. government filed civil forfeiture complaints against properties in New York and Virginia that represent a portion of illegal bribes paid to the former president of Taiwan and his wife.