Johns Hopkins hires former prosecutor to lead investigation at All Children’s Hospital
Johns Hopkins has hired a former federal prosecutor to head its investigation into safety concerns at All Children’s Hospital’s Heart Institute.
F. Joseph Warin, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn, will report his findings to a committee convened by Hopkins’ board “no later than May,” the health system said.
Hopkins President Kevin Sowers also apologized to providers and hospital staff who reported their concerns but were turned away.
Concerns about the heart surgery program at All Children’s were first raised by a Tampa Bay Times investigation that revealed mortality rates tripled between 2015 and 2017. Heart Institute employees reported concerns as early as 2015 but the hospital continued to perform complex heart surgeries after that, the newspaper found. (Tampa Bay Times)
Eli Lilly posting prices online for drugs advertised on TV
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is now directing consumers to online pricing data in TV ads.
Lilly first aired a TV spot for Trulicity—a popular diabetes drug—this week, and the ad sends patients to website that breaks down pricing data on the product. The website offers pricing data broken down by insurance coverage, in addition to list price.
For example, Lilly says Trulicity’s monthly list price is $730.20, but most Medicaid beneficiaries will pay between $4 and $9 per month out of pocket.
The company says it’s the first drugmaker to do so. The Trump administration announced in October that it plans to force drug companies to include list prices in TV ads. (The Associated Press)
Nurse says he faced retaliation from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital after pushing for Facebook founder’s name to be removed
A nurse at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital says the hospital retaliated against him because he pushed for it to drop the Facebook founder’s name.
Sasha Cuttler has filed a labor complaint against the hospital, which he says pulled him from internal boards and prevented him from getting a promotion in response to his call for Mark Zuckerberg’s name to be removed from the facility.
Cuttler said he has pushed for the name removal since 2015 because Facebook’s handling of privacy issues could put the hospitals’ patients at risk.
The hospital was renamed after Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated $75 million to facility. (San Francisco Chronicle)