Shkreli Award Winners: Where are they now?

We’re now halfway through the year (if you can believe it) and there have already been plenty of examples of healthcare profiteering. Who or what do you think deserves recognition for egregious behavior in healthcare? Our nomination page is open for the 2023 Shkreli Awards!

We’ve also seen several updates on previous Shkreli Award winners, so it’s time for an edition of “Shkreli Awards: Where are they now?”

• Sackler immunity: The Sackler family received a Shkreli Award in 2021 for seeking immunity from civil lawsuits through a bankruptcy deal. This May, they got that immunity in exchange for $6 billion in an appeals court ruling.
• Envision bankruptcy: Envision, the private equity-backed physician staffing company, won a Shkreli Award in 2020 for cutting pay to physicians on the front lines of COVID-19 while spending millions on ads against surprise billing legislation. But after the legislation passed, their business model of overcharging patients for out-of-network ER care went down, and Envision filed for bankruptcy in May 2023.
• CMS audits MA insurers: Medicare Advantage insurers that overcharged the government for care won a Shkreli Award in 2022. In January 2023, CMS finalized their audit of MA insurers, which will bring back about $5 billion into Medicare coffers over the next decade. However, CMS is not extrapolating errors in coding from 2011-2017, letting insurers off the hook for years of overbilling. 
• J&J loses talc fight: Johnson & Johnson won a 2022 Shkreli Award for attempting to use a bankruptcy maneuver called the “Texas Two-Step” to avoid dozens of talc lawsuits. This tactic was rejected by a federal appeals court in January 2023 and the company has since agreed to a $9 billion settlement.
• Heart surgeon report: Catholic Medical Center received a Shkreli Award in 2022 for supporting their “star” heart surgeon Yvon Baribeau despite his alarming malpractice record. A report by an outside law firm released this month found that the hospital missed warning signs and mishandled concerns about Baribeau.