The most shocking examples of medical blunders and US healthcare institutions putting profits over patient care have been revealed.
The Lown Institute, an independent healthcare think tank, ranked the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction within the healthcare industry as part of an annual report.
Known as the Shkreli Awards, they are named after the infamous ‘pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli, who obtained the manufacturing rights of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim and marked up its price by over 5,000 percent.
Its 2024 list includes a Texas medical center that allegedly dissected and sold body parts of deceased people without notifying their family members.
A New Mexico former non-profit cancer center also made the list for allegations of denying patients care or demanding upfront payments.
One of the most shocking entries centered on a patient on Montana who was put through 10 years of brutal chemotherapy despite not having cancer.
Lown Institute president Vikas Saini said: ‘It’s a surprise to no one that healthcare dominates headlines for all the wrong reasons.
‘The Shkreli Awards serve as a stark reminder of what happens when profiteering outweighs the public good.
‘By shining a light on these unethical practices we’re challenging industry leaders and policymakers to do better.’
The 10 worst offenders were chosen by a panel made up of health policy experts, clinicians, journalists and advocates.
In number one spot was Steward Health Care System CEO Ralph de la Torre, who made $250 million and flashed his mega-rich lifestyle all while his hospital chain collapsed.
The former cardiac surgeon, who lives in an 11,108sq ft Dallas mansion, now faces a possible conviction and jail time.
Next on their list was health insurance conglomerate UnitedHealth Group.
The experts reveal that ‘what started out as a small Minnesota health insurer is now the fourth largest business in the nation, controlling nearly 90,000 physicians and acquiring influence across the breadth and depth of the healthcare industry’.
According to one investigation, UnitedHealth ‘exploits its vast physician network to maximize profits, often at the expense of patients and clinicians’.
As a result, the company – which denies any wrong doing – faces a federal lawsuit for this behavior as well as an ongoing antitrust investigation.
In at third place on the list of worst offenders was the drug company Amgen.
The judging panel explained that the firm’s cancer drug, Lumakras, was granted accelerated FDA approval in 2021 at a daily dose of 960mg.
However, a subsequent trial indicated that while the 960mg dose extends life by a month more on average, a lower 240mg dose offers similar efficacy with reduced toxicity and side effects such as diarrhea and vomiting.
However, the Lown Institute says that despite these findings, ‘Amgen continues to market it at the higher dosage and is moving forward with the process of final FDA approval at that level’.
It concludes: ‘There’s no sign that Amgen, which stands to lose $180,000 a year per patient at the lower dosage, has any interest in changing its course.’
A spokesperson for the company noted that the FDA has accepted 960mg as the recommended dosage.
The fourth case highlighted by the Lown Institute involves Dr. Thomas C. Weiner, an oncologist at St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena, Montana.
He is accused of administering chemotherapy to his patient, Anthony Olson, for nine years for blood cancer that he never had.
As a result of the treatment, Mr Olson was hit by a range of severe side effects, including the loss of his teeth.
It was only in 2020, when Mr Olson sought a second opinion from specialists at the Mayo Clinic, that he discovered he did not have cancer.
In other cases, the reporting shows evidence that Dr Weiner provided ‘disturbingly high doses of barbiturates to facilitate death in seriously ill patients, when those patients may not have actually been close to death’.
The report alleges that he also ‘altered end of life plans without consulting patients, prescribed high doses of opioids to patients that did not need them, and often failed to document his work’.
Dr Weiner, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, was fired from his role in 2020 and and the US Attorney’s Office filed a civil complaint against him on behalf of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, was outed by the experts as it currently faces allegations of refusing cancer treatment to patients or demanding upfront payments, even from those with insurance.
Previously a nonprofit, the panelists highlight that hospital is now operated as a for-profit facility by Lifepoint Health and owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
They note that the hospital’s financial assistance policy once included cancer treatment, but it was altered in 2023 to exclude it.
The hospital denies turning away patients, but ‘multiple reports, patient testimony, and internal documents suggest otherwise’.
In at sixth place was an alleged Medicare catheter con.
Seven medical supply companies made suspicious claims involving around 450,000 beneficiaries.
One of the suppliers named ‘Pretty in Pink Boutique,’ had no medical business at its address and the phone number went through to an auto body repair shop.
Linda Hennis, a retired nurse who had 2,000 urinary catheters billed in her name that she did not need or receive, said of the scam: ‘I hate the notion of anybody ripping off Medicare. So many of us rely on it. It’s just plain ethically wrong.’
Another unsettling story highlighted by the Lown Institute team involved a family who were billed $100,000 for their child’s emergency flight.
Sara England’s infant son Amari experienced severe respiratory distress two months after open-heart surgery.
Doctors at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California, determined he required immediate specialized care and an air ambulance transfer to a medical center in San Francisco was arranged.
The boy eventually recovered and returned home, but that’s when Ms England discovered that Cigna, her insurer, had refused to cover the 86-mile flight, leaving the family stuck with a bill for $97,599.
Commenting on the case, Patricia Kelmar, who is the senior director of Public Interest Research Group, said: ‘A heart-breaking and budget-busting example of a hospital taking advantage of a distraught mom who is following medical advice.’
Another troubling case which left the panelists outraged involves Zynex Medical, a company specializing in nerve stimulation devices used for pain management.
The Colorado-based firm faces scrutiny over its billing practices.
According to one report, the company sent out batteries and electrode pads to patients to keep the devices running, ‘often in quantities that exceed what is necessary and at costs that are inflated’.
It is reported that almost 70 percent of Zynex’s $184 million in revenue in 2023 came from batteries and electrode pads and a former Zynex employee said they felt that while they were working there, they had a ‘leading role in making people’s lives worse.’
At ninth place, the panelists dedicated the spot to the practice of baby tongue-tie cutting, which involves using a laser to burn off excess skin under the tongue or the webbing that connects the lips and cheeks.
It is supposed to be used on babies with a genuine defect that prevents them from feeding properly but medical professionals have become increasingly liberal with prescribing it, despite around 60 percent of infants getting better without surgery.
The rate of surgeries performed ballooned by 800 percent between 1997 and 2012 from around 1,280 procedures to more than 12,000, with doctors and breastfeeding consultants are raking in millions of dollars annually.
In some cases, the procedure causes severe lasting pain in infants as well as difficulty eating, resulting in malnourishment that can require them to be hooked up to feeding tubes.
The Lown Institute says another uncomfortable aspect of the procedure is that ‘most parents pay for the procedure out of pocket as it is rarely covered by insurance, and one doctor claimed he did as many as 100 per week at a cost of $900 each’.
Last on its list of stories of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare is a Texas medical school, which allegedly neglected to notify next of kin before selling the body parts of deceased patients.
An NBC News investigation revealed that the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth dissected and distributed unclaimed bodies without properly seeking consent from the deceased or their families.
The center’s business then supplied body parts to medical students as well as major for-profit ventures like Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson.
Victor Carl Honey, 58, a dedicated Army veteran, who struggled with mental illness, died in September 2022 of heart failure.
Honey was among the 2,350 people whose remains were sent to the body donation program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.
However, a month after his death, the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Officer deemed Honey’s body ‘unclaimed’ after they said phones for relatives were disconnected even though his ex-wife and two adult children were living in the state.
Honey’s body was kept in a freezer before it was cut up and shipped piecemeal across the country.
His torso was sold to a medical education company for $900; his right leg shipped to a Swedish medical device manufacturer for $341; the bones from his skull were sent to the U.S. Army for $210 for military training purposes.
Following the NBC investigation, the university suspended its body donation program, and terminated the officials responsible.
It also initiated both internal and external reviews to address the ethical breaches. Gary Schwitzer, a healthcare journalist for 50 years, said of the case: ‘An incredibly macabre story of disrespect – a final indignity for the bodies of the poor.’
