The AHCS suit – whatever happened?

Some of you may remember that after I wrote about Automated Healthcare Solutions (AHCS) last September, I was sued for defamation. That case was dismissed by the Federal Judge.
AHCS has not forgotten, and I will not be surprised if AHCS corrects the issues with their initial suit and refiles it. I’ll let you know if that happens but, in the interest of accuracy, I want to summarize those events and to clarify a couple of statements from my September 2010 posts re AHCS.
On or about Thursday September 16, 2010, I received a letter from AHCS attorneys demanding a retraction of my “false statements.” I was traveling at the time, but sent an e-mail response on Monday, September 20th.
In my September 20th e-mail, I stated that I had tried to reach AHCS before my initial post, and had received no response, but that I would still write a correction if it was warranted. Ironically, I added in my closing paragraph that “… I’m looking forward to continued productive dialogue so as to establish the facts…” That was the extent of our dialogue. The following day AHCS filed its lawsuit; it has never responded to my September 20th e-mail.
As I mentioned above, there are two statements in my post of September 9, 2010 which I want to clarify. First, I wrote this:
“An audit of Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ workers comp program determined AHCS-affiliate Prescription Partners, LLC was paid over a quarter million dollars for drugs in 2008. That’s a lot of money, but even more striking is the average cost per script; Prescription Partners; average script was $423.25, by far the highest per script cost of any supplier. Miami-Dade’s PBM had an average cost of $188.52.”
The audit noted in the post referred to a document entitled “OIG Final Audit Report Re: Miami-Dade County Public Schools Workers’ Compensation Program, Ref. IG08-25SB” (OIG refers to Office of the Inspector General).
AHCS took exception to the inclusion of the $453.25 figure in the paragraph that began with the lead “An Audit…” The Final Audit Report included the OIG’s report as well as a response from Gallagher Bassett, the TPA for Miami-Dade Public Schools. While I did not specifically attribute the $423.25 figure to the OIG’s report (I didn’t even mention the OIG), I could have been more clear and noted Prescription Partners’ $423.25 average cost per script figure was provided by Gallagher Bassett in their response to the report (on page 8 of their response, to be precise).
Some may think this a minor detail, but it would have been more precise if I had noted that Prescription Partners’ average cost per script of $423.25 mentioned in the Final Audit Report was determined by Gallagher Bassett.
The second statement is:
“Gerald Glass advertises himself as a ‘medical doctor’. Which he isn’t. Glass, Founder and ‘Co-CEO’, claims he got a medical degree from Windsor University, a Caribbean academic institution. However, I found no evidence that Glass had ever been licensed as a physician in the US…”
I based that statement on a review of Mosby’s Medical Dictionary 8th ed.; American Heritage Medical Dictionary c 2007; Dorland’s Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers c 2007 – all include licensure as a requirement to be defined as a medical doctor (all sources redirect “medical doctor” to ‘physician’ for definition).
In AHCS’ original lawsuit, they stated “Dr Glass earned his medical degree from Windsor University, and he therefore carries the title of “medical doctor.”
In subsequent conversations with MDs, several opined that earning a medical degree enables one to use the title ‘medical doctor’. I respect their opinions that Glass is entitled to call himself a medical doctor as a result of graduation from Windsor University’s School of Medicine.
Finally, there were several other complaints in their original suit, complaints which I have attempted to discuss with them several times, to no avail.
As I’ve said numerous times, if I made a mistake, I’m more than happy to admit said mistake publicly. Well, happy may not be the correct-est word, but suffice it to say I’ll publish a retraction/correction/apology immediately after I determine I screwed up.
But that retraction/correction/apology can’t happen unless AHCS shows me where I made a mistake. I’ll keep you posted.