Sleep doctor convicted in insurer fraud, tax evasion; most commercially insured patients now live with chronic disease; the most anticipated drug launches of 2026 – Morning Medical Update

Sleep doctor convicted in insurer fraud, tax evasion case

A federal jury in Boston convicted a Harvard-trained sleep medicine physician on multiple counts of health care fraud, money laundering and tax crimes after prosecutors showed he hid millions in income and billed insurers for services and devices patients no longer used. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Pankaj Merchia, M.D., of Boca Raton, Florida and Brookline, Massachusetts, fraudulently charged insurers millions of dollars for sleep apnea machines that had been returned or unused for years. He also illegally collected more than $390,000 by billing an insurer for treating his brother and, after being told that was prohibited, set up a new medical business under another person’s name to keep the fraudulent payments flowing. Prosecutors said Merchia concealed more than $6.5 million in income from the IRS over a decade through sham transactions and nominee owners.

“Over ten years, the defendant hid millions in income from the IRS and defrauded insurers through his medical practice,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant — a highly educated physician — put greed over his integrity, lining his own pockets through lies and deceit at the expense insurers and Americans who pay health care premiums, then doubling down on his lies and deceit and attempting to hide his ill-gotten gains from the IRS.”

Merchia faces sentencing in April and could receive decades in prison across the charges.

Majority of commercially insured patients now live with chronic disease

More than half of commercially insured patients in the U.S. had at least one chronic condition in 2024, according to a new FAIR Health analysis of nationwide claims data. The report found that health care costs rose sharply with each additional condition: patients with one chronic illness averaged about $3,000 in annual allowed costs, nearly double those with none, while patients with 10 or more conditions averaged more than $21,000 a year.

High cholesterol was the most common condition studied, and clusters of conditions including hypertension, diabetes and obesity were strongly linked to higher spending and poverty rates.

The most anticipated drug launches of 2026

Fierce Pharma released its annual list of the 10 most anticipated drug launches of 2026, spotlighting a slate of potential approvals that could reshape several high-stakes markets. Citing an Evaluate analysis, they reported the top 10 candidates could collectively reach nearly $46 billion in annual sales by 2032, driven largely by next-wave obesity and diabetes drugs, with additional entries spanning oncology, immunology, neurology, hypertension and nephrology. The full rankings.