Did you know that the soaring costs of your prescription drugs are linked to billions paid to your doctor each year by drug companies? A shocking new analysis reveals this unethical practice—essentially legal bribery—that enriches physicians while burdening patients and our healthcare system.
ProPublica's latest findings uncover a disturbing trend: doctors who receive payments from pharmaceutical companies prescribe significantly more brand-name drugs. This pattern was evident for 46 out of the 50 most prescribed drugs in Medicare. On average, these doctors prescribed 58% more of these drugs compared to their peers who received no payments.
These industry kickbacks, though largely legal, inflate drug costs for patients and waste taxpayer dollars. Don’t let your health expenses skyrocket due to hidden incentives. Stay informed and take action, ask questions, and use proper judgement when a physician wishes to place you on a new medication. Do your own research, after all, it is your health and ultimately the responsibility falls on us to ensure we are making the correct choices for our own health & wellness.
The Multibillion-Dollar Scam: How Industry Payments to Physicians Drive Up Healthcare Costs for Everyone
If you've ever wondered why prescription drug prices in the United States are sky-high, it may be due to the financial ties between doctors and Big Pharma. A new analysis by ProPublica exposes how pharmaceutical companies effectively bribe physicians to prescribe their costly brand-name medications, driving up costs for patients while boosting the profits of drug manufacturers.
The investigation looked at the 50 most prescribed brand-name drugs in Medicare, focusing on physicians who received payments from the drugs' manufacturers through speaking fees, consulting payments, meals, travel, and more. Shockingly, doctors who received such payments prescribed these drugs 58% more often than their peers who did not. This trend was evident for 46 out of the 50 drugs analyzed.
Take, for example, the irritable bowel syndrome medication Linzess. From 2014 to 2018, Allergan and Ironwood, the makers of Linzess, paid nearly $29 million to physicians, primarily for speaking fees and meals. Doctors who received these payments in 2016 prescribed 45% more Linzess than those who did not. As a result, patients were more likely to receive this expensive medication, costing around $1,500 per year, instead of cheaper alternatives like over-the-counter Miralax, which costs about $200 annually.
This disturbing financial relationship spans various drug types, medical specialties, and payment amounts, from small meal payments to large speaking honoraria. For some blockbuster drugs, more than half of prescribing doctors were receiving payments. Over 50% of physicians prescribing the asthma medication Breo, as well as the diabetes drugs Invokana and Victoza, received payments.
Even more alarming, one in five doctors prescribing the highly addictive opioid OxyContin had financial ties to its manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, contributing to the U.S.'s overdose epidemic.
Advocates argue that these payments are meant to educate physicians about drug options, but the data suggests otherwise. Experts maintain that it doesn't require billions in pharma spending to keep doctors informed about treatment advances. Instead, this appears to be thinly-veiled bribery. Dr. Aaron Kesselheim of Harvard Medical School notes, "It's a remarkably durable effect. No specialty is immune from this phenomenon."
So, what can be done? Some suggest that these payments, which resemble illegal kickbacks, should be banned altogether. However, previous attempts at prohibition have proven difficult. A more practical approach would be to combine mandatory disclosure laws, like the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, with strict caps on payments, allowing only minimal amounts that don't exceed the fair market value of services rendered.
Currently, pharmaceutical payment disclosures are voluntary for companies. Although the Sunshine Act's Open Payments database has improved transparency, many disclosures remain vague, incomplete, or fail to identify the physicians receiving money. Closing these gaps is crucial.
Transparency alone isn't enough. Knowing your doctor is influenced by pharma payments doesn't reduce your drug costs. Strict limits or bans on such payments are necessary. Some academic medical centers have already implemented policies prohibiting staff from receiving speaker's fees or gifts and restricting other financial relationships. It's time for all healthcare organizations to follow suit and prioritize patients over profits.
Policymakers have a duty to act. Regulators must strictly enforce the Anti-Kickback Statute to deter these payments. Medicare should consider imposing coverage restrictions on drugs tied to such financial incentives. The FDA could mandate disclosure in drug advertising.
The path forward is clear: cut the multi-billion dollar flow of money from Big Pharma to prescribers' pockets. Until then, the astronomical cost of filling your prescription will keep rising as this national kickback scheme continues. It's time to break up this unholy alliance between the pharmaceutical industry and physicians. Your health and your wallet depend on it.
At Dr. Dekel's Office of Holistic Health & Anti-Aging, we will never sell out to Big Pharma! Nor any other corporation, financial entity, or otherwise who try to persuade us to offer our patient's (our family), anything that is not 100% holistic, healthy or in some way improving your life without harsh prescription drugs! As always, we bring you the facts only, our References are below. Don't just trust us, look these up for yourself. Learning this lesson may one day help you avoid an even harder one in the future.
As always, we will leave you with something to ponder: Remember, attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?
Love to All, from Team Dr. Dekel MD!
References
Fresques H. "Doctors Prescribe More of a Drug If They Receive Money from a Pharma Company Tied to It." ProPublica. December 20, 2019. Accessed May 11, 2023. Link
Mitchell AP, Trivedi NU, Gennarelli RL, et al. "Are Financial Payments From the Pharmaceutical Industry Associated With Physician Prescribing?: A Systematic Review." Ann Intern Med. 2021;174(3):353-361. doi:10.7326/M20-5665
Dusetzina SB. "ORBITA: Revisiting Impacts of Industry Payments on Physician Prescribing." Ann Intern Med. 2021;174(3):425-426. doi:10.7326/M20-8073
Mitchell A, Sarpatwari A, Bach PB. "Industry Payments to Physicians Are Kickbacks. How Should Stakeholders Respond?" J Health Polit Policy Law. 2022;47(6):815-833. doi:10.1215/03616878-10041205
Chimonas S, DeVito NJ, Rothman DJ. "Bringing Transparency to Medicine: Exploring Physicians' Views and Experiences of the Sunshine Act." Am J Bioeth. 2017;17(6):4-18. doi:10.1080/15265161.2017.1313334
Mulinari S, Martinon L, Jachiet PA, Ozieranski P. "Pharmaceutical industry self-regulation and non-transparency: country and company level analysis of payments to healthcare professionals in seven European countries." Health Policy. 2021;125(7):915-922. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.04.015
Larkin I, Ang D, Steinhart J, et al. "Association Between Academic Medical Center Pharmaceutical Detailing Policies and Physician Prescribing." JAMA. 2017;317(17):1785-1795. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.4039
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. The views expressed here do most likely reflect Dr. Dekel's Office views and/or those of its staff. 😁 And we are proud of it!
Comments