Are drug companies paying your doctor?

[cynatnite]

Some time ago, Dr. Nancy Snyderman disclosed on the Today show that she accepts cash from the pharma industry. She never specified which companies or the reasons behind it. She acted like all doctors do it and it was no big deal. Well, I think it is a big deal. If Dr. Snyderman being paid to push one particular drug over another, then at the very least her patients have the right to know. The public does as well since she's presenting herself as being unbiased in her reporting.

While I was trying to find some specifics, I ran across this interesting website. It doesn't include all drug companies, but at the very least you can find out if your doctor is accepting cash from some drug companies and in return pushing certain medications over others. It's up to you as to whether or not you confront them. I would suggest that you do so in a way in order for your doctor to feel free to explain his or her reasons. Maybe there's some logic I'm not seeing.

Here's where to look...

http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/

I would also like to point out that doctors who do this aren't necessarily considered the better physicians...


In 2001, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered Pennsylvania doctor James I. McMillen to stop “false or misleading” promotions of the painkiller Celebrex, saying he minimized risks and touted it for unapproved uses.

Still, three other leading drug makers paid the rheumatologist $224,163 over 18 months to deliver talks to other physicians about their drugs.

And in Georgia, a state appeals court in 2004 upheld a hospital’s decision to kick Dr. Donald Ray Taylor off its staff. The anesthesiologist had admitted giving young female patients rectal and vaginal exams without documenting why. He’d also been accused of exposing women’s breasts during medical procedures. When confronted by a hospital official, Taylor said, “Maybe I am a pervert, I honestly don’t know,” according to the appellate court ruling.

Last year, Taylor was Cephalon's third-highest-paid speaker out of more than 900. He received $142,050 in 2009 and another $52,400 through June.

Leak, McMillen and Taylor are part of the pharmaceutical industry’s white-coat sales force, doctors paid to promote brand-name drugs to their peers — and if they’re convincing enough, get more physicians to prescribe them.

Drug companies say they hire the most-respected doctors in their fields for the critical task of teaching about the benefits and risks of their drugs.

But an investigation by ProPublica uncovered hundreds of doctors on company payrolls who had been accused of professional misconduct, were disciplined by state boards or lacked credentials as researchers or specialists.

http://www.propublica.org/article/dollars-to-doctors-physician-disciplinary-records

on edit:

Here is a list of the top drug money earning physicians...

http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/top_earners

[pacalo]

1. I've always suspected they did. I was jaded as a young person working

in the office of a local hospital when I overheard two doctors talking outside my window. They'd just attended a staff meeting & were disturbed about being urged to admit more patients for not so urgent reasons. That was an educational moment.

[cynatnite]

2. I worked at a large family practice clinic and every week there was a different drug rep...

They'd bring donuts, pens, frisbees, and other gifts for the physicians. I have no problem with this way of advertising toward the doctors.

I think the money part is a problematic issue. You don't know if the doctor is giving you the best possible medication or if it's that he or she is being paid to prescribe a certain medication.

There should be a law or something. At the very least there should be full disclosure to the patient.

[pacalo]

6. Yes, I've always been concerned that our doctors prescribed the most effective

medication.

I meant to tell you in my last post that this is an outstanding OP. Kudos to you for taking the initiative in researching it.

:hi:

[laughingliberal]

3. It's a long standing problem and the ethics are very questionable. nt

[Initech]

4. I asked my brother (4th year med school) about it and he said it happens more than you'd think.

He said that if you took a survey of medical school students that 80% of the students are in it for the money and not for the actual science of it all. And where do doctors make the majority of their money? By writing prescriptions. They can talk to a patient all they want, but they wont make anything unless they write a prescription.

[Mojorabbit]

5. My hubby is a family practice doc

and he gets nothing for writing a script. No one has ever paid him a penny either for prescribing a drug.
There are however certain physicians who get paid to go around the country giving lectures which pimp certain drugs for conditions which is a whole nother ball of wax.

[AnnieBW]

7. I'm Pretty Sure my Shrink Is

He was asking me to compare my current anti-depressant with my former one, and it really seemed like he was trying to get me to switch back to the old one, which is made by a different manufacturer. Problem is that the one I'm currently on is MUCH better. He's done this behavior with my husband, too.

[cutlassmama]

8. Sanjay Gupta is on the list. Is that the same on that is on CNN?

[cynatnite]

9. Yep...

TV docs sure aren't in it out of the goodness of their hearts it seems.