HHS Official Killed With “Multiple Blunt Force Injuries” — Ruled Suicide

Best
Daniel Best

Tyler Durden  – “The city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Thursday said Best died from “multiple blunt force injuries” and it ruled his death a suicide. It would not release further information.

“In announcing his death, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the 49-year-old former CVSHealth and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals executive agreed to work at HHS “out of a desire to serve the American people by making health care more affordable.” — Cleveland.com

Best, a senior adviser to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, was found “unresponsive” at 5:25 a.m. on Nov. 1 near the garage door exit of a Navy Yard apartment building, which is located approximately a mile south of the Capitol. He was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.

A drug industry insider, Best worked for over a decade as an executive for several companies, including 12 years at Pfizer, Universal American, MemberHealth and CVS Caremark Corporation, where he made just over $500,000 per year negotiating drug prices for seniors.

His March appointment drew the ire of President Trump’s opponents, who accused his administration of becoming too close with the drug industry. Best was advising Azar — a former pharma executive and lobbyist, on drug pricing.

“He brought his deep expertise and passion to this task with great humility and collegiality,” said Azar in a statement following Best’s death. “All of us who served with Dan at HHS and in the administration mourn his passing and extend our thoughts and prayers to his wife Lisa and the entire Best family at this difficult time.”

In May, Stat reported that Best was a seasoned negotiator — however questions remained on “whether he’ll advocate for his former colleagues in the PBM world, or if, in the words of a lobbyist, he’ll show the public “where the bodies are buried.””

“Best has stepped into the government in the midst of a vicious battle between PBMs and drug makers, each blaming the other for the high cost of prescription drugs. PBMs point out that the drug companies set the price. Drug makers say that PBMs effectively force the prices up through the complex rebate system. Best has an inside view into the situation.

“The most important thing I learned about the PBM industry is that every player serves a critical role in managing this complex system and we wouldn’t be talking about lowering prescription drug prices today unless PBMs had a role to play,” Best said in an email, through an HHS spokesperson. — Stat

Former co-workers described Best as a nice guy, yet tough negotiator according to the Epoch Times:

“He’s got a real nice personality,” said former MemberHealth colleague Chuck Spinelli. “He’s not a jerk, he’s not overbearing. He’s approachable, and pharma liked him. They appreciated working with him. He was very transparent. He was very honest. He didn’t play any games.”

Best, who grew up in Erie Pennsylvania, is survived by his wife Lisa and three children.

SF Source Humans Are Free Nov 2018

4 thoughts on “HHS Official Killed With “Multiple Blunt Force Injuries” — Ruled Suicide

  1. When it was announced that Dan Best had taken the position assisting Alex Azar in reducing drug prices I thought our profession had hope. I’m sorry , let me introduce myself. I’m a practicing Independent pharmacist , who along with all the other Independent pharmacy
    owners in this country are being put out of business by the PBM’s . It’s a known fact that they have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar many times . They have stolen billions of dollars from every American , many state government Medicaid programs and the Federal medicare part D drug program. Who would have better knowledge of every angle of stealing they do better than Dan Best. He was a very high ranking official for CVS/CAREMARK for many years.
    “The city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Thursday said Best died from “multiple blunt force injuries” and it ruled his death a suicide. REALLY ????? How would one kill themselves by producing multiple blunt force injuries ?
    This is a cover up scam !!! There is many many billions of dollars at stake here ! And Dan Best knew toooooooo much !!!!
    As a PBM lobbyist said, he’ll show the public “where the bodies are buried.”” The only way the PBM’s could have stopped him was to
    do what was done to Dan Best ….. My heart goes out to Dan’s family and friends . Dan’s death was a terrible loss to this country, and
    unfortunately the death of the Mom and Pop Independent pharmacy’s in this country .

    1. Thanks very much for sharing what you know about Big Pharma. It IS very sad that this innocent American citizen was MURDERED because he was willing to do the right thing. – g

  2. I was going to leave a plea for Justice – Divine, temporal, anything – but at this point it’s another year in the ocean. It would just join the masses of ongoing pleas and cries from hundreds of millions of us.

    Until there is a hand of Justice that can act in this temporal world, this kind of garbage will continue. And it has all the hallmarks of the dip state (misspelling intentional) and the Clinton. Mafia.

    May his family find comfort during their loss and maybe someday, this situation could be righted.

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