News, 17,000 doctors cash in drug company money, report finds. (nurses, medical, clinic)
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WASHINGTON — More than 17,000 doctors and other health care providers have taken money from seven major drug companies to talk to other doctors about their products, a joint investigation by news organizations and non-profit groups found.
More than 380 of the doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other professionals took in more than $100,000 in 2009 and 2010, according to the investigation released on Tuesday.
Hey! Wait! Didn't we just have this discussion on this forum and there were several people who said this does NOT ever happen?
Those are some awfully big numbers. This certainly should be cause for concern. Clearly, nothing that has been done thus far has made any difference at all. I hope the companies are severely penalized, although I'm pretty positive that's not going to happen.
More than 380 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other professionals took in more than $100,000 in 2009 and 2010.
That means - each of these 380 vile evil horrible health professionals took in approximately $263 per year! OMG...that's enough for two golf games and lunch! It's obviously a conspiracy by the country clubs.
Of course if it was just my next door neighbor recommending these drugs to other doctors, I would HOPE my next door neighbor isn't getting paid. Since, he's not qualified to know whether or not these drugs are any good. He's a building contractor, not a doctor.
I would WANT the medical professionals to be the ones extolling the virtues of various drugs. Who else is qualified to talk about them to their peers? Some salesman? Do you want your doctor to be suggesting Drug #2 to you, because a salesman gave him a free pen? OR - would you rather he suggest it to you because another Doctor who has participated in the clinical trials, recommends it?
Doctors should not receive money from pharmaceutical companies. It is unethical. The amount is irrelevant. And I imagine some of those people got thousands, while others got just a bit.
My dh holds a government contracted job. If he accepted a single cent from any company that had anything to do with his job, he would be out on his ear. Period. Same with cops, teachers, and most every other profession. Why are the rules different for doctors?
Your argument holds no water at all. If someone is paid something; anything; they are more likely to speak highly of whomever gave them that money. And this article states that they were given money specifically to talk to other doctors about their products.
Doctors should not receive money from pharmaceutical companies. It is unethical. The amount is irrelevant. And I imagine some of those people got thousands, while others got just a bit.
My dh holds a government contracted job. If he accepted a single cent from any company that had anything to do with his job, he would be out on his ear. Period. Same with cops, teachers, and most every other profession. Why are the rules different for doctors?
Your argument holds no water at all. If someone is paid something; anything; they are more likely to speak highly of whomever gave them that money. And this article states that they were given money specifically to talk to other doctors about their products.
The previous "discussion" centered around whether doctors received money for PRESCRIBING medications.....this report does nothing to support that erroneous misconception...
Your argument holds no water because you have no concept on how medical continuing education works...
By the way, LOTS of other professions provide opportunities for paid expert consultants....why should the rules be different for doctors??
I do know how continuing medical education works. I have both friends and family in the medical profession. My friends and family are ethical. They do not participate in things like this, but they know it happens. I have to wonder about people who so loudly and repeatedly insist it does not happen, despite evidence to the contrary.
"But a series of lawsuits brought by former employees of those companies allege the money often was used for illegal purposes — financially rewarding doctors for prescribing their brand-name medications."
"-- Allergan, the maker of Botox, created faux advisory boards solely “to reward hundreds of its top injectors,” federal prosecutors [3] charged this month. More than 200 doctors, for example, were put up at an oceanfront resort in Newport Beach, Calif., in 2005 and 2006 and paid $1,500 to listen to presentations, according to their sentencing memorandum."
"-- Forest Laboratories created “preceptorship” programs in which physicians were paid up to $1,000 each to allow a sales rep to spend time observing their practice. “In reality, Forest sales representatives used the preceptorships to induce physicians to prescribe [anti-depressants] Celexa and Lexapro,” according to a 2009 complaint [6] filed by federal attorneys in Massachusetts."
I think it's poor budgeting and the rx companies could find better methods of spending their advertising dollars, but I still don't see anything wrong with it. They're not paying the doctors to pick one drug over another. They're paying them for the privilege of allowing them to observe - they're paying them to attend a conference where they are stuck listening to lectures from sales reps for hours on end (I've been to a few of those)...
It's sort of like when you "win" a 3-day vacation in a time share resort. You get dinner and drinks, but you're also stuck listening to their sales pitch. If the resort is lucky they'll find someone who's actually willing to buy, but most of them just go for the free lodging.
These doctors aren't getting incentives to actually prescribe the medications. They're getting incentives to learn about them. To hear a salesman tell them why their product is better than someone else's, or why it's innovative, or why it's awesome, or why they -should- prescribe it. The doctors are still free to choose to prescribe these meds or not. They get their money regardless. So really it doesn't make a lick of difference.
Again - they are not getting paid to prescribe medicine to anyone.
And many of them are being paid to assist in research, or to help conduct clinical trials in preparation for presentation to the FDA pending approval.
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