CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
New Orleans Dr. LaCorte Keeps Running into False Claims
25 Corporate Crime Reporter 38, October 3, 2011
Dr. William LaCorte is an internist in New Orleans, Louisiana.
And he’s been trying to just practice medicine.
But he keeps running into false claims – by hospitals, lab companies and drug companies.
Over the years, he’s filed a number of cases under the False Claims Act.
And has recovered many millions of dollars.
In fact, he’s made more settling False Claims Act cases over the years than he has made in his practice.
His biggest settlement was in 2008 against Merck for $54 million – he pocketed $14 million after lawyer’s fees and taxes.
Merck was selling its anti-acid drug Pepcid to hospitals at low prices in exchange for the hospitals driving out the competition.
“I would order one drug, and a different drug would be given,” LaCorte told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week.
“I wrote to the pharmacy and therapeutics committee, I wrote to the quality assurance committee, and I said – I think there is something going on here.”
“Why am I ordering one drug and you are giving another one?”
“And they said – it’s therapeutic interchange.”
“I’m saying – what?”
“And they said – therapeutic interchange. The committee of doctors and pharmacists and nurses and administrators can decide that one drug equals another drug.”
“That’s a crazy idea and completely ignores the important role of the FDA. It’s totally insane.”
“Each drug in an individual is going to act differently. And these are totally different drugs.”
“Pepcid wanted the market. Zantac had it.”
“In order to get market share, Merck offered Pepcid to the hospitals for ten cents a pill if they gave Merck either 80 or 85 percent market share.”
“So, you give us 80 to 85 percent market share, and we’ll give Pepcid to you for 10 cents a pill.”
“Merck realized that even if a patient came in using Zantac, they would leave using Pepcid and they would then stay on Pepcid.”
LaCorte says he grew up in New Jersey.
“Merck’s conduct really bothered me,” LaCorte said. “I knew some of the Merck executives and their children.”
“The gentleman who established the firm, George Merck, stated – we will make the medicines and the profits will follow.”
“They apparently changed that when a bunch of MBAs took control and said – we’ll make a profit anyway we can, regardless of whether or not the drug is appropriate for the patients.”
Dr. LaCorte currently has a similar False Claims Act case pending against Wyeth/Pfizer.
Other than the case against Wyeth, do you have any other False Claims Act cases pending?
“No comment,” Dr. LaCorte says.
Are you on a crusade now against health care fraud?
“I’m simply trying to take care of a patient without an order being changed,” Dr. LaCorte says.
“I’m trying to order home care without them doing a bunch of stuff I don’t order.”
Do you consider yourself a conservative Republican?
“That’s a tough question,” Dr. LaCorte says.
“Fiscally I tend to be conservative. I think I’m a northeastern Republican. Does that help you?”
You mean like a Rockefeller Republican?
“Yes,” he says. “Government should be a referee.”
He ticks off a number of Republicans who have been helpful – former Congressman Bob Livingston, Senator David Vitter (Louisiana) and Senate Charles Grassley (Iowa).
“By the way, Senator Grassley was extremely helpful,” LaCorte says.
“When the Department of Justice declined to intervene in the Merck case in 2003, Senator Grassley wrote a letter to then Attorney General Ashcroft which shocked me.”
“He said – I want the people responsible for this in my office in two weeks. I wasn’t aware that a Senator could order around a U.S. Attorney, but he did.”
[For a complete transcript of the Interview with Dr. William LaCorte, see 25 Corporate Crime Reporter 38(11), print edition only.]
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