Â鶹ŮÓÅ

HCA Holdings Inc. on Thursday disclosed a lawsuit had been filed in Florida alleging the hospital operator subjected patients to medically unnecessary, invasive and high-risk cardiology procedures for years and then submitted false medical claims for federal reimbursement. The suit, made public Monday, was filed in February 2012 in U.S. District Court in Miami by Christopher Gentile, then professional liability claims director for a subsidiary of HCA in Tennessee, and singles out two HCA hospitals: Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, Fla. and Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in Hudson, Fla. (Armental, 2/26)

Gilead Sciences Inc., whose $1,000-a-pill hepatitis C treatment is one of the world’s most expensive drugs, is avoiding billions of dollars in U.S. taxes by booking profits overseas. ... The data released in a securities filing Wednesday suggest that Gilead is shifting valuable intellectual property to low-tax countries and paying about 5 percent in taxes on its foreign income, said Robert Willens, an independent tax consultant based in New York. (Rubin, 2/26)

Catamaran Corp. has agreed to buy Healthcare Solutions Inc. from Brazos Private Equity Partners LLC in a $405 million all-cash deal expected to boost the pharmacy-benefit manager’s presence in the workers’ compensation market. Meanwhile, Schaumburg, Ill.-based Catamaran posted stronger-than-expected revenue and earnings growth in its December quarter. Pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, process prescriptions for the groups that pay for drugs, usually insurance companies or corporations, and use their size to negotiate with drug makers and pharmacies. They have put pressure on drugstores by negotiating for lower prices on behalf of their clients and via mail-order plans that compete for prescription business. (Dulaney, 2/26)

Should generic drug makers update product labels on their medicines when they learn of safety risks? The question is being fiercely debated because federal law doesn’t allow generic drug makers to do so independently, unless a change has already been made to the corresponding brand-name medicine. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld this interpretation of the law in a controversial 2011 ruling and, as a result, consumers who claim they were injured by a generic drug cannot sue the manufacturer. (Silverman, 2/26)