[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GhBfDMW2Fo]
According to a former Pennsylvania Inspector General’s Agent, a pharmaceutical industry-sponsored teen mental health program was created with the “cold-blooded and cold-hearted intent to recruit more children into a very subjective diagnosis of mental illness and to treat those kids with medication.” The whistleblower’s allegations have drawn the attention of the Texas Attorney General who has sued pharma giant Johnson & Johnson regarding its involvement with the program and alleged improper Medicaid payments of over half a billion dollars, including allegations that J&J illegally paid a Texas State official to help promote the program. A jury convened this week to hear the case and — according to a report by Bloomberg yesterday — heard testimony that a Medical Director for the Texas Dept. of Mental Health and Mental Retardation received money and trips to promote the program targeted at teens that may have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of fraudulent Medicaid payments for Risperadal.

To report Medicaid or Medicare fraud, contact Frohsin & Barger.