Doctors don't take bribes because they're ethical

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CanyonWind
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20 May 2009, 9:07 am

A new law in Vermont requires drug companies to publicly disclose all bribes to doctors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/busin ... ml?_r=1&em

Quote:
In practice, the new law would let Vermonters learn each year which doctors have been paid, and how much, by the makers of the brand-name drugs for which they wrote prescriptions — or how much money certain surgeons have received from the makers of the stents, pacemakers, artificial knees and such that the doctors implanted.


Quote:
The law also closes a loophole in previous regulations that had allowed companies to keep specific expenses private by claiming them as trade secrets.


Quote:
The Vermont attorney general’s report, compiled before passage of the law, provides only aggregate data because companies declared 83 percent of the payments to be trade secrets.


Quote:
Of Vermont’s 4,573 licensed health practitioners, almost half received remuneration, including payments for lectures, meals or lodging from pharmaceutical companies in the 2008 fiscal year, the report said.


Quote:
A psychiatrist received about $112,000, the highest amount spent on one person.


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demeus
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20 May 2009, 11:22 am

Actually, unless the organization they are employed by disallows it, doctors regularly take "kickbacks" from drug companies in order to push their products. There was a story on the internet by Anne Bauer about what happened to her son when doctors pushed drugs on him.

Not all doctors/organizations do this however and I think the VT law will at least allow the public to know what doctors are doing this.



ViperaAspis
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20 May 2009, 11:34 am

It doesn't quite rise to 'bribe' level, but I agree that it is disturbing. This practice starts BEFORE their career here in Oregon.

When I worked at OHSU, the graduating class of doctors would be given TONS of free stuff by the school all branded. And we’re talking about high-quality stuff from the small (need some notepads? Here, take as many as you like (all with PLAVIX (or other) plastered across the bottom or top)) to large (free stethoscopes worth several hundred dollars).

While I’d like to reiterate that this practice in no way constitutes a bribe and is prevalent in other professions as well, the sheer volume and overwhelming presence in the medical industry is higher than anywhere else I’ve seen. This, coupled with the fact that these are people are tasked with one of the highest responsibilities is concerning.

This is NOT to say that these professionals are making any kind of conscious choice to deliberately prescribe one medication rather than another or to (worse) prescribe medication where an alternative non-medicated treatment may be useful as well. The subconscious influence is the danger.



Coadunate
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20 May 2009, 6:49 pm

Does that law include bribes to discharge military service if the draft is re-instated in the U.S.?



Jkid
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21 May 2009, 11:10 am

I wish the Physician Payments Sunshine Act was real.

http://www.nytms-se.com/2009/07/04/phar ... orruption/