How To Reach Us:
St. Louis Front Page
P.O. Box 1354
St. Louis, MO 63188
Voice: 314-771-0200
Fax: 314-771-0300
To submit news, contact:
editor@slfp.com
To advertise, contact:
advertising@slfp.com
|
|
|
ST. LOUIS NEWS TODAY - Sunday, August 1, 2004
|
Survey Reveals U.S. Attitudes to Upcoming Olympics
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com) August 1, 2004 - With less than a month to go before the start of the Olympic Games in Athens, a new Harris Poll finds that half of the adults in the United States believe that participation in the Olympics should still be limited to amateurs, as it has been for most of the history of the modern Olympics.
According to the survery, most people favor some U.S. government funding for the training of American athletes, that the loss of medals and suspensions are the best ways to fight the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and that the U.S. Olympic Committee should provide funding for all American Olympic athletes, not only to potential medal winners.
These are the results of a Harris Poll of 2,242 adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive(R) between July 12 and 16, 2004.
The specific findings of this survey by Harris Interactive are:
- 51% of the adult public believe that the Olympics should be restricted
to amateur athletes only.
- Replies to this question vary greatly by age. Substantial majorities of
those over age 65 (68%) and of those aged 50 to 64 (62%) favor not
allowing professional athletes to participate, while most people under
age 40 think they should participate. Only 21% of people aged 18 to 24
favor not allowing professional athletes to compete.
- While hardly anybody (4% of the adult public) thinks the federal
government should provide all the money needed to train U.S. Olympic
athletes, most people (69%) think the federal government should pay
some of these costs. Of these, the largest numbers favor mostly
private funding with some federal funding (44%), or mostly federal
funding with some private funding (21%).
- Almost everybody (93%) believes that the best way to eliminate the use
of performance-enhancing drugs is to take away the medals of athletes
who test positive and to suspend them. There is some disagreement
about the length of suspension (46% thinks it should be for life; 45%
think it should be for the current games).
In addition, 36% favor monetary fines for the athletes and 26% favor
monetary fines for the sports governing bodies of the countries
involved.
- A large 78% to 22% majority believes that the U.S. Olympic Committee
should fund all participants in Olympic sports, not just potential
medal winners.
Claritin Maker to Pay $9.3 Million to Missouri in Settlement
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com) August 1, 2004 - Schering Plough, the manufacturer of Claritin, will pay more than $9.3 million to Missouri in a settlement resolving concerns the company underpaid the Medicaid program in rebates for the popular antihistamine. The Missouri portion is part of a $282 million nationwide agreement in principle announced Friday, Attorney General Jay Nixon said in a statement.
The settlement resolves the contention of the states, the federal Department of Justice and the federal Center for Medicaid and Medicaid Services (CMS) that Schering violated a federal Medicaid drug rebate statute requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to accurately report "best price" information. "Best price" is the lowest price that a manufacturer offers its products for sale to commercial purchasers. CMS uses this information to calculate rebates payable by the manufacturers to the state Medicaid programs under the statute.
"Medicaid programs pay for a substantial portion of the prescription drugs used in this country, and these rebates help lessen the burden on taxpayers," Nixon says. "By paying double damages, Schering is finding out there is a hefty price to pay when you try to circumvent the rules and cheat taxpayers."
The government contended that Schering entered into agreements with CIGNA and Pacificare, two large HMOs, to sell its Claritin products to these HMOs at certain prices. Under pressure from the HMOs over the price of Claritin, Schering gave them substantial price concessions. The concessions had the effect of lowering the price of Claritin below the price Schering reported as its "best price" to CMS.
As a result, from the first quarter of 1998 through the fourth quarter of 2000, the states received almost $141 million less in rebates from Schering than they would have if the true "best price" had been reported. The $282,343,012 nationwide settlement represents double damages allowed under the law.
The Missouri Medicaid program will receive $3,692,662 from the $9,377,383 directed to the state. The balance - $5,684,721 - will go to the federal government for its share of the Medicaid costs incurred in Missouri. Schering already has paid $1,824,565 of the $9.3 million covered in the settlement.
The settlement also calls for Schering to enter a guilty plea to the federal anti-kickback statute and pay a fine of $52.5 million. As part of the agreement, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General will require Schering to certify its "best price" methodology in the future to ensure the proper rebates are paid.
Since December 2003, Nixon has obtained more than $19 million in "best price" settlements involving pharmaceutical companies. GlaxoSmithKline paid $2.7 million for not accurately reporting the best price information for the nasal spray Flonase and the anti-depressant Paxil. The Missouri Medicaid program received $1.5 million of that amount. Bayer Corp. paid $7.1 million total - $3 million of which went to the state Medicaid program - over incorrect rebates paid on an antibiotic and an anti-hypertensive drug.
|
STL-News is owned and maintained by the Moore Design Group as a special feature of the Saint Louis Front Page for the sole purpose of disseminating news and information about the Metropolitan Saint Louis area. Text or graphics may not be copied, rewritten or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission. For more information, contact editor@slfp.com
All rights reserved world wide
© 1996 - 2008 Moore Design Group .
|
|
Click here for
AD Rates
|
|
