The Health News USA August 17 2017

Overview

• More than 30 health centers in Georgia will get a piece of a $2.3 million federal grant to help improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health care in the communities they serve. The recipients include centers in Albany, Athens, Marietta, Palmetto, Ringgold and Swainsboro.
• Six Mississippi health care professionals face felony drug charges. Tuesday’s arrests stem from separate drug investigations conducted by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The six will face charge of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud involving a cough medicine that contains Hydrocodone.
  
• South Carolina has sued Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin and other opioid drugs accusing them of violating South Carolina’s Unfair Trade Practices Act. The suit, accuses Purdue of failing to comply with a 2007 agreement it signed with South Carolina and dozens of other states over allegations of its promotion of OxyContin.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 17th of August 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/georgia/articles/2017-08-15/feds-award-georgia-23m-to-boost-health-centers

More than thirty health centers in Georgia will get a piece of a two point three million dollar federal grant to help improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health care in the communities they serve. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release Tuesday that the grant will build upon two thousand sixteen achievements.

The thirty two centers receiving the funds will look to improve performance in the following categories: improving quality of care; increasing access to care; enhancing delivery of high value health care; addressing health inequalities and achieving patient-centered medical home recognition. The Georgia Department of Community Health did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/mississippi/articles/2017-08-15/mississippi-health-care-workers-face-felony-drug-charges

Six Mississippi health care professionals face felony drug charges. Tuesday’s arrests stem from separate drug investigations conducted by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. MBN Director John Dowdy says fifty five-year-old Doctor Michael Baker, of Rolling Fork, and his assistant, thirty six-year-old Brandy Collins, of Yazoo City, each faces a charge of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud involving a cough medicine that contains Hydrocodone. Bond for each was set at five thousand dollars.

The MBN director says Baker also has surrendered his medical license. Also arrested were: forty five -year-old Mitzi Ramsey, of Golden, director of nursing for a Tupelo assisted living facility; thirty nine -year-old Valerie Riddle, of Aberdeen, a licensed practical nurse for an Itawamba County nursing home; fifty three -year-old Cynthia Purvis and twenty two-year-old Stephen Parker, pharmacy technicians in Corinth.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/south-carolina-sues-drug-manufacturer-opioid-crisis-49230961

South Carolina has become the latest state to accuse a drug manufacturer of exacerbating its opioid drug crisis by using deceptive marketing, with the state’s top prosecutor suing the maker of OxyContin. Attorney General Alan Wilson on Tuesday announced the state had sued Purdue Pharma, accusing the maker of OxyContin and other opioid drugs of violating South Carolina’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.
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The suit, filed in Richland County, accuses Purdue of failing to comply with a two thousand seven agreement it signed with South Carolina and dozens of other states over allegations of its promotion of OxyContin. Purdue admitted no fault in that case, which accused the company of encouraging doctors to prescribe OxyContin for unapproved uses and failing to disclose its potential for addiction.

That consent agreement required Purdue to correct its allegedly abusive and excessive marketing practices, maintain a program to identify prescribers who over-prescribe OxyContin and train sales representatives in the abuse and diversion detection program before they can promote the drug. Since that time, Wilson said the company has continued to mislead doctors about the risks of addiction, by saying that patients who appeared addicted actually needed more opioids, and that opioid drugs could be taken in even higher doses without disclosing the greater risks to patients. Wilson said South Carolina had the ninth highest rate of opioid prescriptions in the nation last year. Since two thousand eleven, prosecutors said, more than three thousand people in South Carolina have died from prescription opioid overdoses.
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