Maybe I’m just being unimaginative, but something I saw on the Lieberman-hating leftist FireDogLakeBlog has left me scratching my head.
Pharmaceutical companies are data mining which doctors are prescribing what drugs. They are logging this information in their internal computors, without the names or info on who is getting these drugs mind you, and they are rewarding doctors who prescribe large amounts of their products.
Hamsher gives an example of a doctor friend of hers who gets speaking gig work from Pfizer, with significant reimbursment, because that doctor prescribes large quantity of Pfizer products.
It seems to be a producer-based quid-pro-quo. The vast majority doctors didn’t know about this program until the drug companies started approaching them.
My confusion here is as to why this is a problem?
If a large pharmacutical company makes a large variety of medications and wants to spend it’s money promoting the medical community to, if a patient can use one of their products, to use their products; I’m not really seeing a problem.
If a patient cannot use one of their products but the doctor assigns it anyway, then there is a malpractice issue. But she provides no evidence that this is what is happening or that this is even her problem with the compnaies’ programs.
So help me out here.
Auto shops and parts stores get deep discounts for using a particular brand of parts and/or tools and/or tires exclusively. Restaurants and grocery stores get the same if they only handle a certain brand of canned goods and the like or a particular dairy.
Every successful business everywhere gets special deals for using a particular this or that in their place of business, right on down to copier paper. Why is this so controversial?
Is it just a hatred of US style non-socialized medicine on their part? Or maybe just a hatred of capitalism?
It’s a perception thing. People want to believe that when they see their doctor and they need drugs, that the doctor will prescribe them the most appropriate medicine. If doctors are getting kick-backs (different than discounts for buying in bulk like your example) it gives the illusion that they will automatically prescribe the brand that is paying them before another, possibly better for the patient, medication is offered. Now, this doesn’t mean this is happening. But this practice gives the illusion that it could be occurring.
The sad thing is that if someone is taking medication, some don’t go and research it themselves.
Chris – you are right. It is very much a perception thing. I keep telling myself that everytime my hubby, Phil’s stepdad, goes to his pillpusher Dr. The few times I went with him I noticed various items in the office with brand name medication advertising on them. The clock on the wall had Lipitor across the front, all the note pads, pens, etc. had similar advertising. Of course this guy prescribes the Lipitor, when generics are available at a much cheaper cost. When asked if a generic could be used instead (we’re on Medicare (old farts)), the Dr. said
oh no, you must have the Lipitor. Me, I use nature’s Lipitor, called Red Yeast Rice, the Chinese have used it for thousands of years and you can buy it at Super Suppliments.
So, I keep hoping it is just perception.
The Mom — See, you called your doctor’s bluff. Too many people don’t check to see if there is a generic version of the drug the doc recommends. Or they don’t get a second opinion if something seems fishy. I’d definitely have left that office if I saw “Lipitor” on half the stuff in the waiting room!
A lot of physicians can be bought off with trinkets: pens, cups, note pads. The drug reps bring food to the office for the doctors and staff. I’ve seen doctors and their wives get picked up in limos and taken to concerts, all picked up by the company. I know a doctor who several times a year would get airfare, hotel rooms and meals in NYC for himself and his wife for giving testimonials to other doctors about their product. This has been going on for decades and believe it or not, its not as bad now as it was before.
My first job was in a VA medical clinic and I even have a cheap-as-hell Zoloft clock around somewhere, and a nifty Lipitor mug where the blood pressure on the side drops when you fill it with hot coffee. The drug reps were pure salesmen and -women, slick as snot and just as slimy. Most of the doctors treated the reps as parts of the job that had to be endured, and talked shit about them as soon as they left the room. But they did keep the trinkets.
Speaking of the reps, one of the guys I shot “practical pistol” with was one. He was a friend of my dad’s and the first time I came home after a match with the guy I told The Mom about dad’s friend who was a “Drug Dealer”. Freaked the hell out of her (I was probably around 12 and thought the joke was hilarious) and I’m pretty sure it garnered a phone call from one parent to the other.
He had just about zero sense of humor, but I only know of one or maybe two other people who make a Browning HiPower perform to its limits.