So how will this impact my own doctor's visits that seem to be delayed by these "feasts" the drug reps bring to the offices that last far longer than lunch time? Oh and the free calculators, pens, calendars, note pads, etc. The ladies at the front desk hand those things out to patients like lollipops! They don't want all that crap cluttering their desks. They do seem to enjoy the expensive lunches though...

Absolutely SRS..... Drug companies are trying like so many big companies do, to pick a single minute point and try to emotionally drive policy with it. Truth be known Doctors and researchers are still gaining wealth from Drug Companies bribes and pay for influence schemes...they are just being more discrete. Don't fall for the coffee BS..it is a publicity stunt

Don't take this the wrong way, but you people, specifically SRS, Entitled, and Chief, are idiots.

I don't make a dime off what I prescribe to patients. I don't get a kickback from drug companies every time I write a script for Celebrex, or Nexium, or any other prescription medication. Do you know what free pens and Post-It notes do for me? They lower my office expenses so I can put that money toward buying a box of new tongue depressors, or giving my employees the big fat thousands upon thousands of dollars bonuses that I save with ALL those pens and ALL those Post-It notes.

And if you want to call a ham and cheese on rye with a bit of mustard a 'feast' then by all means, I guess you're Entitled to Your Opinion as stupid and senseless as it is. You people are so out of touch with what really goes on at physician's offices and poisoned by Obama's rhetoric that you are not grounded in reality.

Since 2002, drug companies have been barred from giving physician big ticket items, like trips, golf outings, sporting events, etc. Let's look at the average cost of prescriptions in the United States from 2002 to current, shall we?

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1808273/drug_prices_skyrocketed_during_last_decade_gao/index.html

Look specifically at the drug_prices_skyrocketed_during_last_decade_gao portion of that link. Have you gotten it through your thick skulls yet that doctors MAKE NO MONEY OFF WRITING SCRIPTS???

Do you know what it takes to be a doctor? Next time you need one, go to school for 20 years and have $250,000.00 worth of student loans to repay. I am not cut out to be a doctor...I'm glad somebody was! Do you think anyone will want to go to medical school with the ridiculous thinking going on?

RackNStack you are not a physician! Poser maybe...
Not sure where you live but out here the doctor's offices get catered meals!

you are definitely a few cans short of a 6 pack if you call pizza and wings or cut up subs catered..........major W.T. all the way if you think that these "meals" are just a wonderful "feast" or the "cat's meow". you sir, are a trailer bound idiot if you think we get these "wonderful catered feasts" - VERY few of our meals are anything more than that - oh wait, we do get a chef's basic salad with that too - very ritsy to you I guess.. ROFLMFAO. Brainless sheep, I'm sure that anything more than your government cheese and peanut butter is a catered gourmet meal.

~Il dio benedice sfidato mentalmente

realitybites-1317725, or rather jackass...when I said catered meals I meant just that! I have seen the feasts brought in because I make all my doctor appointments for 1 pm which means I get to the office at 12:40 and witness this. Maybe in your neck of the woods pb&j is served or drive through and pizza brought in but not where I live. I suggest you shut up since you obviously don't see the same doctors I do.

What is up your ass that you feel the need to attack me? Oh you work in a doctor's office that takes predominatly welfare? Sorry, my doctors don't take medicaid. Could be why my doctor's office gets the better meals. Lol, bugger off loser!

Hey, guess what there rfaber? I don't make a DIME off prescriptions I write. Do you people think Pfizer comes to me at the end of the month and hands me a check for some outrageous amount because I write Celebrex instead of Mobic?

The perception out there is completely out of touch with reality and baseless. Show me PROOF that a physician made money writing scripts. Go ahead.....I'll wait.

RankNStack is 1000% right. While these idiots look at a sandwich as a feast, I as an RN am asking MANY questions of the drug reps about their products, how they compare against other meds, their side effects, etc. I triage 8 hrs/day for a large (24 provider) neurological business and act as the front-line response/liaison with the public & I for one want to be able to answer questions about the medications & their side effects when our patients call. I pride myself on keeping myself up-to-date educated through continuing ed classes, seminars, grand rounds, and talking to these drug reps. What kickback is that receptionist, secretary, medical assistant, LPN, or RN getting from the pharmecutical company - a sandwich?? Please pull your heads out of your butts, clear your eyes and take a REAL look at the world around you. Sorry that you're jealous that your doctor's staff is getting a lunch (not JUST the doctor) and you aren't, but you really need to get a life if you really think we're all getting some kind of "kickback" from this. Oh wait, you ARE getting a kickback as a patient - you're getting a more knowledgeable staff member.....like OMG.....heaven forbid you get the medical attention/information you want/need. But then again, maybe you enjoy feasting on the ignorance you seem to to enjoy spreading. Educate yourself before you spout off please.

~sigh....Il dio benedice sfidato mentalmente

I don't work in medicine. I work in procurement. These new rules the docs are being held to is rediculous. It makes sence to ban alot of this for a purchasing professional, who might spend money with a company who's rep always brings in a box of donuts. It makes no sense to hold a doc accountable when they make no money off it and would have perscribed the name brand meds anyway.

Let's take this a bit father, shall we? How many docs use the free samples to make sure their under-insured elderly can have an inhaler or whatever between the appointment and their next penssion check? Should we take all that away, too?

Ah Rebecca! Another one that knows where I live and who my physicians are? Sorry darling but I know for a fact that the catering truck was paid for by the pharm rep that was taking up my appointment time! BTW, this particular doctor is also my long time friend and lives 2 blocks down the street from my house. We socialize together and our children all went to school together.

I am not saying take away the free samples. Give them to people who need them. I have been given samples to try a new drug and also to cover the time it takes my online pharmacy to mail out a new 90 day supply of meds on a new script. I simply think the kickbacks have to stop! The other day a pharmacist told me that one of my doctors was writing so many scripts for a specific medicine that he could not keep it in stock! While I won't say what the med is I can say it's not a commonly prescribed drug! I am certain this doctor is getting something for writing this drug the way he is! I asked the doctor to switch me to a different med and he won't so I will have my PCP write a script for something else!

And what about the scripts being wrote off label? You don't think there is an incentive for that? Think darling!!! Don't be fooled. Not all doctors play by the rules just as not all cops, etc. Should we discuss doctors who bill $500.00 for a test that does not cost that to do? Or an office visit lasting 10 minutes with no procedures and billing insurance $240.00. Isn't that another kickback?

That's political regulation for you!

Items under $50 are exempted...as far as politicians & lobbyists regulation is needed. I also like the suggestion that if one is ever in congress they are barred for life from being a lobbyist!

Bingo, VAGuy. If I can't grab a pen, then why the hell can my congressman be taken out for a $100 lunch by a lobbyist and that's called 'doing business'? THOSE people are abusing it WAY more than any doc every did.

You're right. Pelosi can treat the air force like her personal airline and all the other congressmen and women can take advantage of their positions, fly free, but heaven forbid, don't let a doctor have a latte!!!

I agree that the hypocrisy is overwhelming when a government agency regulated this when the government lobbying is one of the few things that approach the scale of medical marketing.

However, I agree with their decision. As even though these perks stated are trivial and likely <1% compared to what they spend in advertising directly to the public (and I'm pretty sure it is less effective also). If it didn't have some effect, they wouldn't do it. I doubt anyone thinks they are doing it for the patients or doctors sole benefit, they are playing the percentages and finding out what works. Handing out pens and noting a hundredth of a percent increase in that area after numbers are normalized makes the "gifts" an investment.

Just like barely anyone is impacted by mail offers, enough people (a fraction of a percent) are that is worth printing thousands of cards and paying for postage for what will be thrown away immediately in all most every single case.

According to the genius who is Entitled to My Opinion up top there, that's a pizza feast that you had.

I prescribe what's been known to work and generally avoid new things for about two or three years before their track record is established. Five years if I'm prescribing for family, and ten for myself.

No "pizza" moron posing as a doctor. Is that all you know foodwise? Do you understand catered meals? Someone comes in a van with chafing dishes etc filled with non finger foods...not deep fried meals from a clown drive through!

You are entitled to your "Opinion", but you might want to base it on fact if you want anyone to listen without making fun of you. I have never seen a catering truck outside adoctor's office. And on the off chance YOU have, you probablt don't know who paid for it. You are making wildly speculative assumptions based off Lord only knows what.

I'd be all for that. I take out your appendix, you install new carpeting in my house.....after you're healed of course.

I had considered implementing some sort of barter system in my practice, but the logistics and legalities behind it were so complicated that I just couldn't pull it off.

We get paid by the procedure (if we're specialists or surgeons) or by the patient (if we're in the so called 'cognitive' specialties where we're paid for our knowledge and its application). The entire reimbursement system is jacked up. We put relatively little value on implementing aggressive preventive measures (i.e. early detection and aggressive treatment of hypertension, treatment of high cholesterol, smoking cessation) while we pay tens of thousands of dollars to the interventional cardiologist to cath that same person and put a few stents in.

We'd rein in health care costs more if we sold Coca Cola in six ounce bottles, limited introduction of high fructose corn syrup into everything we eat, and overall get a better handle on our crappy food supply. Health care costs are not outrageous because of pharma, or health insurance companies, physicians fees, or even lawyers.

It's outrageous in this country because we're fat, lazy, and think our bad habits are our God given right. It's simple. Countries that are generally thin and fit have low health care costs, those that are fat and out of shape have high health care costs.

Mr. Obama can present the case all he wants about this new plan reducing health care costs, but until we stop gorging ourselves and drinking and smoking ourselves silly, we're not saving crap.

NP's are optional reality. If my doctor got one in his office I'd find another doctor. Simple as that! My ortho hired one and I was with a new ortho a week later. If I am paying for a doctor I want a doctor not a nurse or NP.

BTW, many doctor's offices actually have tech taking your vitals. Quite a few don't even have an RN on staff. LPN's are the norm. I am speaking of a practice not a clinic. Don't bother to argue back as I am very aware of what is here where I live. I have used pediatric services and have had parents with geriatric doctors. I've seen it all in between as well.