Looking back at our posts on third-party payer cases, so many are titled “another” or “again” that we seriously are starting to question what TPPs are thinking when they file these suits. We are beyond the point of déjà vu. We’ve already analogized their behavior to the definition (most often credited to Albert Einstein) of insanity. So how about another Einstein quote: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Or, have you ever heard the expression "If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got”? We don’t think the TPPs have because, here “again” is “another” decision throwing out a TPP’s RICO and assorted state-law economic-loss-only claims. Health Care Service Corp. v. Olivares, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117750, *2 (E.D. Tex. Sep. 2, 2011) (magistrate’s report and recommendation)
In fact, there really isn’t anything particularly novel or new here – just another nail in the coffin of TPP claims based on alleged off-label promotion because plaintiff “again” ignored a crucial factor -- the medical judgment of independent prescribing physicians. The court in Health Care Service, essentially asked plaintiff: didn’t you read the opinion in Ironworkers Local Union 68 v. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP, 634 F.3d 1352 (11th Cir. 2011)? We did and we wrote about it here. Plaintiff must have missed that too. So, the Health Care Service court summarized it for them (like we did in our prior post too, but a few of these are worth repeating)...
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