Do payments from Big Pharma influence how doctors prescribe drugs?
For years Big Pharma has handled their business like the Wizard of Oz.
They’ve done everything they can to keep you from peeking behind the curtain — from getting a look at the millions they’re spending bribing doctors with fancy dinners, exotic vacations, and even cold, hard cash.
But a new report is giving us all an inside look at the unbelievable returns drug companies are getting from wooing docs.
The money Big Pharma is spending is touching off a prescription frenzy that could leave you or someone you love on some of the most dangerous (and expensive) drugs around.
And it takes a lot less cash than you’d ever believe.
Over and over again they’ve told us that all the money that changes hands between them doesn’t influence whether doctors prescribe drugs.
Well, you can say a lot of things about Big Pharma — but they’re not stupid. If giving docs the full Hollywood treatment didn’t work, they wouldn’t do it.
And, unfortunately for all of us, it’s working a lot better than anyone has ever let on.
Consumer watchdog ProPublica just did a major analysis of Medicare records for prescriptions, and then compared it to Big Pharma payouts.
That payout data came from the Open Payments Program, a federal database that shows how much drug companies and device makers pay to promote their goods (and which doctors they’re paying).
And the evidence was crystal clear — once a doctor starts taking payouts and favors from Big Pharma, he’s more likely to write prescriptions for their drugs.
And it didn’t take much to get these docs on board, either.
Even a free meal was enough to sway prescribing habits over to brand name drugs. And docs who took Big Pharma’s perks were up to three times more likely to give an Rx for a brand name med regardless of how much more it cost you.
And if you happen to live in any of the biggest dollars-to-doctors states — Nevada, Alabama, Kentucky or South Carolina — your doctor is twice as likely to be on Big Pharma’s payroll.
As you can imagine, doctors weren’t too happy to be contacted by ProPublica researchers.
One, a psychiatrist from Brooklyn who bagged more than $53,000 from drug makers in 2014, said he hadn’t done anything illegal, “so good luck.”
And, unfortunately, he’s right.
There are no laws preventing doctors from taking cash, trips, meals or anything else, for that matter, from drug makers — and then turning around and writing loads of prescriptions for that same company’s high-priced meds.
Of course, the drug industry is still holding to its mantra that all these payouts mean nothing. In fact, a spokesperson for its trade group said that doctors and drug makers are simply “working together” to “improve patient care.”
You bet they’re working together! There are more than 600,000 doctors who are raking in billions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies.
And that’s just in one year!
Dr. Richard Baron, who is president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine, claims that doctors are practically chased by drug makers to accept their favors.
But the most curious finding to come out of ProPublica’s analysis is about the medical fields that are most apt to take these drug company payments.
Eye doctors topped the list, with almost 65 percent receiving $5,000 or more. Next came internists, some 30 percent of whom take in similar amounts.
All of which might make this a good time to check and see if a doctor you know has made the list.
You can do that at the “Dollars for Docs” website here.
Sources:
“Now there’s proof: Docs who get company cash tend to prescribe more brand-name meds” Charles Ornstein, Ryann Grochowski Jones and Mike Tigas, March 17, 2016, ProPublica, propublica.org
