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43 Comments
- Ellipsys, on 03/23/2008, -0/+11Everyone calm down. Please don't think most doctors do this. I've grown up in a family in the medical community, and was on track to finish med school myself until I became afflicted with a chronic illness. Most doctors get NO kickbacks from any part of the industry. The bigger scams are how pharmaceutical and health insurance companies manipulate their prices to get maximum payout from medicare, thereby pricing their items way out of line for the average patient None of this gets passed on the the physicians, and certainly not to the patients in terms of quality or price of care. There may be a few "bad apples" who will do anything for a buck, but most physicians aren't, and articles like this tend to inflame people. Physicians are just as screwed over by the state of healthcare in America today, as the patients are. The real villains are pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
- allowners, on 03/23/2008, -2/+12It's a scary thought going to the doctor realizing they may be employed by the industry. "First do no harm" is being replaced with "first are profits."
- podwich, on 03/23/2008, -1/+7And you blame them? They have the choice of relieving your pain with narcotics and face jail or huge fines if you're lying to them, or they can refuse to prescribe narcotics and be safe from those. What would you choose if you were in their shoes?
- DrDigg, on 03/23/2008, -0/+6The only kickback I get is crappy pens.
- dsmx, on 03/23/2008, -0/+5Sadly doctors have no choice in the matter, the bottom line is all that matters in the health industry in america.
- WriterSD, on 03/23/2008, -3/+8Sadly, some doctors are only interested in the bottom line. :(
- com2, on 03/23/2008, -0/+4FTA: "five companies, which reached a settlement last fall to avoid prosecution on charges they had routinely paid illegal kickbacks to surgeons."
Let me get this straight, 5 companies did something illegal and instead of doing jail time they paid a kickback to some gov agency in order to get out of it? WTF Wish I could do that. - Livewire, on 03/23/2008, -1/+4I plan on becoming a surgeon, but I have no illusion of wealth. Some people still want to do it out of genuine interest in the job. I'll be in debt for at least two decades, so if I wanted to make money I'd be a UPS truck driver (no college needed):
http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html - spinesurgery, on 03/23/2008, -0/+3You people need to read the whole article and then go find a few more from different sources instead of just drinking one flavor of Kool-Aid. Grow up. Life is a lot more complicated than one news article.
- unpolloloco, on 03/23/2008, -0/+3I'd say that, while it may be easier to monitor them, it is next to impossible to stop it, or for that matter, even reduce it. According to Sicko, Hillary was bought off by the health insurance industry for just under $1,000,000. Doctors on the other hand, are bought off, but because of legal liability, they can only go so far in their ability to be bought off. If they use bad methods, they put themselves at risk of severe legal consequences. Politicians not so much. They at most might lose an election (and most often, they don't unless they have sex with a healthcare representative!!!). Doctors on the other hand, are subject to losing their practices, losing any assets they have (if they have any, given the amount of money they typically owe due to student loans), and even losing their families. Bribes to politicians may be easier to monitor, but doctors are held to a much greater standard of legal accountability.
- audreahuff, on 03/23/2008, -0/+3News flash: Doctors given perks from biomedical companies for prescribing their products. That's about as suprising as health-insurance companies giving incentives to reps who find ways to deny claims.
- Cattywampus, on 03/23/2008, -0/+3Even scarier are the people who've been convicted of taking body parts out of corpses at funeral homes and selling them to be used as replacement parts in other people... even with the parts are from people who had cancer, etc.
- Extraneous, on 03/23/2008, -0/+3This just in: Doctors human too!
- Pinkertinkle, on 03/24/2008, -0/+2Everyone knows NY Times hates doctors right?
- aserer511, on 03/23/2008, -0/+2Hm. I support competition 110% percent, but the degree to which a doctor is allowed to be wooed by a pharmaceutical/product producer HAS to be limited. why? I want my doc prescribing drug x over y NOT because of the New York Strip a rep bought him, but because a new study has showed that X has significantly less side effects, etc. I am not so familiar with client/corporate dynamics in regards to prosthetics manufacturers vs pharms, but there has to be an ethical line that limits gift giving so the doctor cannot become a sales puppet for a product, but a proponent of it on empirical grounds
- DrDigg, on 03/23/2008, -0/+2No they don't.
- asylumua, on 03/23/2008, -0/+2I honestly think there is nothing wrong with that. It is competition, that's all. You wouldn't criticize best buy for trying to attract customers. As someone that works in the industry I can say that these implants are very similar. Knee and Hip is a developed field and the implants are slightly different from one company to the other, but they are technically the same. The biggest difference is in the instruments. These companies now realize that they cannot develop a revolutionary implant with the technology available, so they focus their attention on surgical instruments. It is the instruments that sell the implants. But what Dr. Coon said is ***** (that doctors are reluctant to switch horses). If a company really wants to get a doctor to buy their implants, they make him a custom set of instruments that mimic his previous company's instruments plus one or two new ones that the doc has always wanted but his old company didn't design. I've designed a couple of custom instruments for some of these docs.
- Andysan, on 03/24/2008, -0/+1In the last 20 years, I have had both knees and both hips replaced (The not-so-good benefits of excessive exercise!).Anyway, maybe my surgeons used specially crafted instruments since I have had no problems. Is that a bad thing?
- audreahuff, on 03/25/2008, -0/+1Heh heh. Or Mark Foley. Or Larry Craig.
- WriterSD, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1Note that I said "only" interested in the bottom line.
- unpolloloco, on 03/23/2008, -0/+1if you have enough money you can
*cough*.....O.J......*cough" - rentmitchum, on 03/23/2008, -0/+1Actually it's because I admitted I used to smoke marijuana for my anxiety. I am made to suffer for telling the truth. I never abused pain medicine, and it's ridiculous *****.
- ms2guy, on 03/23/2008, -0/+1Do you think we should hold physicians to a higher standard than we do for politicians? The last time I checked, corporations were still shelling out millions in lobbying and campaign contributions in exchange for political influence.
- Tuto, on 03/23/2008, -0/+1Probably but I think its easier to monitor the bribe collecting of politicians that are constantly on the spot light opposed to a few doctors. At least where i come from.
- unpolloloco, on 03/23/2008, -0/+1since there are no bribes in politics..........
If there was a socialized system, the bribes would simply be shifted to the politicians that make the decisions rather than the doctors. - unpolloloco, on 03/23/2008, -0/+1News Flash: in a socialized system, politicians are given perks from biomedical companies for deciding that those products are better than their competitors. That's about as surprising as Bill keeping it in his pants.
- Shaman760, on 03/23/2008, -0/+1Why do you think so many people are given SSRI medications? Paxil, Prozac, Wellbutrin, etc.? There's definitely something going on.
I have a personal stake in this argument, as I was prescribed this stuff and had....let's just say "a life changing experience". - unpolloloco, on 03/23/2008, -0/+1The government takes our money. Therefore, politicians should control what they have no education or training in
- Tuto, on 03/23/2008, -0/+0Tuition fees are a bitch. Good thing college is free in Finland for at least for the foreseeable future and even if they change that i will have finished law school long before that. Then again the average salary of a lawyer in the private sector in Finland is 5300 euros, add to this 40 percent tax rate and I doubt I will never be making any serious money either.
- dustyshadow, on 03/23/2008, -1/+1only some?
- rentmitchum, on 03/23/2008, -1/+1I would have the courage to practice my chosen profession and help the people I'm sworn to help. Maybe you didn't hear me. KIDNEY STONE. I'm here with my kidney feeling like it's gonna explode and my left nut feeling like it's going to pop. Why even make the medicine if you can't use it.
- offthewagon, on 03/23/2008, -1/+18th paragraph down...
"The government has not argued that any of the kickbacks led to unnecessary knee or hip surgery or maltreatment of any patients."
so, to revise your aphorism, it's more like..."first do no harm; second, if you have to cut someone open, you might at well get a little extra for your trouble." - derek20cali, on 03/23/2008, -1/+1Gee, it couldn't have anything to do with your history of illegal drug use, could it?
- rentmitchum, on 03/23/2008, -4/+3Yes doctors need to be put under more pressure, because they already do their jobs SO well. I sit here now with a kidney stone and no pain medicine because of the fear of idiot doctors. ***** them. "Those open clinic guys who prescribed narcotics got like 100,000 dollar fines or thrown in jail, I'm not doin it, I won't prescribe narcotics".. Well ***** you jackass I'm in pain! Thank god for kratom.
- inactive, on 03/24/2008, -1/+0Your beef is with the DEA and your legislators and your fellow citizens, not your doctors. And especially with the news media that hyped the War on Some Drugs.
- inactive, on 03/24/2008, -2/+0Doctors who don't pay attention to the bottom line soon find themselves to be ex-doctors. Every doctor's office is a small business that has to pay all its bills before the doctor makes a nickel.
- wecaanation, on 03/23/2008, -3/+1Doctors save our lives. They should be able to do whatever they want.
- bremstrong, on 03/23/2008, -3/+1Scarier is the cancer treatment industry--there, kickbacks go to every doctor that uses chemotherapy agents on their patients.
- Tuto, on 03/23/2008, -3/+1Sorry but isn't that the basic principle of capitalism which the medical industry including doctors are a part of?
- aukxsona, on 03/23/2008, -6/+2Why do you think they became doctors? cha-ching!
- inactive, on 03/23/2008, -5/+1yo whatever, this is america, let em bribe!
- replaysMike, on 03/23/2008, -5/+1This is why if you want good health-care, you need to go to Mexico.
- Cheesecrunch, on 03/23/2008, -5/+0DIGG ME DOWN BECAUSE MY DOCTOR ACCEPTS BRIBES
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