"Dollars for Doctors"

[Justice wanted]

While driving my car Sunday evening and finding the area I was in I could only get an NPR station (A station I haven't really listened to since I found out how much the RNC was controling it) I heard this great segment on a Weekend show On the Media talking about How Obama's new law would make pharmaceutical companies show how much they spend on note pads and other gifts and how much they are giving to doctors.

They mentioned in the story that doctors do get kick backs from pharmaceutical companies to perhaps prescribe a certain drug or promote it.

Well, yesterday on IM a friend and I where talking about it. my friend said she wouldn't be surprised if her doctor was in some sort of kick back program because it seems anytime she goes in to see her doctor he tries to prescribe her one of 3 drugs. She said next time she goes in she is going to confront the doctor about the drugs he continues to try to prescribe. One is a diabetic drug which she does not need. When she went for a certain test one day her blood sugar that day happened to be 97. Now this doctor wants to put her on this pill for people with type 2 diabetes.

Her brother has diabetes and knows that 120 range is the normal.

She is really thinking of changing doctor.

So I ask you. If this information was reveal to you that your doctor takes money from drug companies or is seen getting kick backs for certain drugs being prescribe would you drop that doctor?


http://www.onthemedia.org/2012/jan/20/dollars-doctors/

(You can here the segment on that page.)

[jody]

1. Type 2 diabetes can be an expensive scam. Wasn't the level reduced to 120 a few years

ago with the intended consequences of selling more drugs and the profitable test strips to be used several times a day?

When a patient's drugs and test strips are paid by third parties, the patient rarely thinks about the cost but there's no such thing as a free lunch.

[Tunkamerica]

2. I worked in a doctor's office in high school now almost 15 years ago and the days when drug reps

came in were great because they would bring pizza or subs. Notebooks, calendars, pens, and whatever else were also brought. I know there was more to it than that but I never had firsthand experience with it since I was just updating the filing system at the time.

Truthfully, I feel like if the doctor is so corrupt as to put their personal well being above their patients' then they deserve to be driven out of business and probably barred from practice since they are violating their sworn oath.

[Atman]

3. They can't do that anymore.

My wife used to work in general practice. At least twice a week, a drug rep would bring in lunch for the whole office. Not pizza or subs, but serious food from high-end restaurants. In addition, virtually everything we owned had a drug logo on it; zen fountains, clocks, pens, even lip balm and sun screen. My favorite was the Levitra (boner pill) pen...it was just a couple of inches long until you clicked the button, then it slowly grew into a full-size pen.

We also got taken out to dinner regularly -- spouses, too. We'd go to Michael Jordon's Steak House at the casino, or a fine bistro in Hartford, and the drug rep would order a $200 bottle of wine. I recall one dinner at a nice seafood restaurant, the entire office staff of ten was present, plus a few of the spouses. Two drug reps were hosting, and i was sitting across the table from them. At the end of the meal, the quietly discussed the tab...one agreed to put the meal on her Amex card if the other paid the tip. I didn't see the meal tab, but the tip was over $400.

Ah, those were the days. I'm not allowed to go to dinners anymore, and we're lucky to get a crappy pen (no more Mont Blancs). None of that is allowed now. Although one of the drug companies did fly my wife to San Diego not long ago, for a four day seminar about headaches. The funny thing is, her practice now rarely prescribes drugs. They try to moderate pain via lifestyle and diet. But that doesn't stop the drug companies from trying.

[riverwalker]

4. no

just continue to do your research, read about the drugs, use common sense.