#1

This should give you a little in sight into just "why". Select the link, scroll down & follow the RELATED tabs.

Here's a clue. 3 guesses.

The first two don't count.

The third starts with M, Ends with Y, And makes the world go around.

I always thought those kickbacks were a huge conflict of interest.

I'm always suspicious of those three piece suits with the leather brief cases in the doctor's offices. I'll be sitting there for a half hour, they'll go in and out in five minutes or less. Just long enough to hand over the pile of cash I guess.

Bring on the lawsuits. Prosecute some doctors while you're at it.

When you hear about Medicare and Medicaid fraud ---- this is some of what they are talking about. Slowly, but surely, drug companies are putting the names of physicians to whom they are giving "gifts." And if your physician then tells you that all he gets are some pens and magnets, you will see the dollar value of the pens and magnets as well as any cash, trips, lunches, etc. You will be shocked at the list when you look at it.

Here's some MORE of what they are talking about.

Gourmet catered lunches & dinners (for 1-500) where "colleague physicians" discuss ways attendees can work the discussed product (drug) into the scripts for their patients. The speakers can make $1000-$15000 PER LECTURE and may be selected to do 3 or more per year.

Trips (travel, accomodations AND PER DIEM) to conferences where these lectures take place HOURLY.

It was said during the Health Care "Reform" legislative process that there were 10-15 pharma lobbyist in DC for every legislator. That translates into 10,000-15,000 SALESMEN for 1000 customers.

Pharma makes BILLIONS on these drugs every YEAR and include litigation, damage awards, federal fines, and physician's marketing fees in the pricing models and cost benefit analysis BEFORE THEY EVER cap a sample pillbottle to give to your local doctor.

Ya, its funny how health care doesnt really concern the patient anymore, just the money that doctors, drug makers , and insurance shysters get. Everything is OK as long as they make money and even then they still have to fight over it. Meanwhile, F##K the patient....

Why don't you guys become doctors? Give up the remaining years of your youth, get a couple hundred grand in the hole, and then have a bunch of A holes tell you how much you should make and what you should do with your time and life. Sounds like a dream to me.

Some fields should never have been for profit because the abuse potential is too high. I like the part where the corporation "agreed" to billions in civil and criminal fines. If a corporation can be entitled to status as an individual, then that corporation should be subject to the same penalties as an individual, including death of that corporation. I would laugh to see it printed that any "individual" named in a civil or criminal complaint would "agree to civil and criminal penalties" - that would mean mean an individual had some ability to deny same and that's not happening anywhere; is it?

Why don't you guys become doctors? Give up the remaining years of your youth, get a couple hundred grand in the hole, and then have a bunch of A holes tell you how much you should make and what you should do with your time and life. Sounds like a dream to me.

So your choice to be a doctor allows you to UNETHICALLY GRAFT as much as you can in collusion with drug companies promoting UNTESTED UNSAFE medications causing death?

Welcome to the REAL world doc.

Ummm FINALLY! the attention really needs to be on the drug companies. They are the ones being the dirtiest in the health biz. Doctors are really abusing their business by accepting bribery money to prescribe a particular drug. You should truly be ashamed of yourself if your doing that. The whole reason why you went to medical school to become a doctor was to help people and save lives, not help drug companies make more money and lining your pockets as well. What a disgrace.

the drug companies had a "behind closed doors" deal with obama and friends during the health care debate. so they werent touched. also you should consider that every drug that is trialed to get approval by the fda. that trial is bought and paid for by the drug company who makes it. millions of dollars to get a "good result" with minimal side effects. most studies dont include anybody with any health problems. dont want any normal people spoiling the results.

The Dr.s are exempt because they didn't do anything wrong! If a drug company says, "prescribe this drug for this illness based on this research", why wouldn't we prescribe it if the research was OK. Drug companies pay for business just like every other business. Dr.s are the customer in this case. Why does the government need to get involved in EVERY SINGLE thing? Next someone is going to say Blue Cross deserves their money back. Holy @*($! Are you crazy? Those people are f'in crooks! We would all be better off just paying cash for our Dr visits and get rid of the so-called "insurance" industry. There is a reason that ALL insurance companies eventually make money if they just play the odds. They are like one BIG Las Vegas casino. And they are in the business of screwing Americans.

You people have no f'in idea what you are talking about. You think Dr.s are crooks? I'll bet every one of you are broke and just want the "Fat Cats" to get something taken away. Idiots!! Physicians are the worst business people on earth. If they truly knew how much power they have as a collective body they could all be millionaires overnight! The reason they don't is because they draw the line when it comes to taking money over helping someone! What other profession do you know of that does that? What do you losers do for a living? Criticize rich people?

If you AREN'T part of the solution...

you know the rest.

Sad, but true.

How else could you explain the relationship between the MMS and the oil companies?

Grease my pocket and I'll sign any permit.

Prosecute them all!!!

Prosecuting would only give the fines to the government. It is more profitable and less time consuming for them to get "contributions"

Yeh. it's the American way, and that's why America is dieing a slow and painful death.

The only reason that the insurance company was upset was because it was cutting into their bottom line. Otherwise it would have been ok with them. Enough said!!

So many stupid people in the world. Its not the fact that the insurance company was losing money. you just made up that reason out of no where. How can the insurance company be missing out? They get their money either way, they don't have to go to the drug company for it. They go to you and your employer for it. You should explain your reasoning rather than just posting an opinion.

Yeah, I wonder why healthcare is so expensive?

OMG - too funny........

another form of civilized cannabalism.........

Great comment, jon.

A scumbag health insurance company suing a scumbag drug manufacturer.

Don't forget the scumbag doctors in the middle of it. You can't bribe an honest person.

I agree. I worked in the medical field for years battling insurance company denials and "mistakes" of non payment. Just like casinos, insurance companies and drug companies didn't become so big and get built giving money away.

As I understand it, insurance is collective action to prevent catastrophe. Where does a middleman/shareholder fit the model? Yeah, the problems are really basic.

Never happen (but should, along with insurance and the rest of corporate big wigs) They will settle with a secret agreement and NO ADMITTANCE OF GUILT. That is the way it works.

Another effective rake on the economy.

Oh please! These doctors are passing out these drugs like candy! Literally experimenting on patients with them..............And THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE SIDE EFFECTS OR INTERACTIONS OF THESE DRUGS and THEY ARE/HAVE KILLED PEOPLE with their negligence! Here's how it should work:

Experiment on the employee's who created the drug..............let them take it for 20 years before the FDA approves it and then and only then, should any drug make it to market!

As far as a 'cure' for an illness/disease............Medicines are not 'designed to cure' an illness........they are designed to control/help with the syptoms of an illness/disease. Finding an actual 'cure' would put them out of business.

This sounds like a typicial sales person, trying to sell BULL @!$%#.

Biz, you said you lost your job because of Obamacare. If we have Obamacare in this country, as you claim, how come I am still without health insurance? I had to drop my coverage 5 years ago after the premium went from $500. per month to almost $900. per month in 3 short years. And that was with a $10,000. deductible. You may have lost your job, but it certainly wasn't because of any OBAMACARE.

excellent comment biz!!!

damn tired... would you be willing to create an experimetal drug and then test it on yourself? You are a complete baffoon. If that were the case, then no new drugs would be created that help us out tremendously. That is how you liberals think though, you think that no matter what crazy ideas you have, there will always be someone there to follow it and take care of you. You start implenting just pure insane rules and regulations and you will have a society of medocrity, just like you lunatics want.

Yep typical salesperson commenting on what actually happens...I would like to know if any of you have been a medical sales rep before or currently? Then you can say all you want, but some of these comments are so far from the truth it's comical, but sad that people believe it to be true. Anyhow, someone chimed in about Obamacare and the loss of jobs - and yep it's true - not only did the industry inform us sales folk of what would happen, but good Ol' MSNBC had it in their featured "Daily Medicine" they put up each day while the debate was on. I also read the bill - all damn 2000 + pages, because I'm weird I actually like to know what I'm talking about (Darn pharma sales people cause I'm supposed to be an evil liar), and it clearly spelled out that there will be little room for pharma marketing and or sales. The incentive to conduct Research and Development (R&D) will also be taken away. If you hand enough things out to people the incentive to do something get's lost as well. By the comments on this thread it's clear most don't know what they are talking about. I've sat in waiting rooms with patients giving me dirty looks and the like - but boy they sure are glad when they get three months worth of free samples to take care of their issue. Wow and the doctor didn't write a script and I didn't get anything for it. Shame on me for being so generous. How many billions, yes billions, of free medications are given out every year for patients from the pharma industry? Try 2 billion folks - that's a lot of millions. Also someone rationalized that they have no insurance due to the pharma industry? Not sure how that connection happened, but whatever floats your boat. For the most part, people that have such hatred towards the pharma industry are usually jealous because we make good money and we know that being successful and making a good living is a bad thing nowadays. Unless of course that shoe was on their foot they would be OK with it. Funny how that works.

and David...Obamacare has begun, you should read about it - it started last month. The reason layoffs are happening is because companies are looking at what they will have to pay into the system and then looking at what they need to be sustainable. The golden goose theory at work by the government (Democrats) that is until the goose decides to stop laying those eggs. So yes, I was laid off because of Obamacare as our company stated that due to the new bill and it's effect upon the medical industry they wouldn't be able to stay afloat with the number of employees they had. Not trying to argue, but you should read up before you state why I was or wasn't let go. I again am wondering though who will be paying for all this great care moving forward as these are good paying jobs that put a lot into the tax base. The last three years I have personally paid over $30,000 in taxes for all these great programs - you can take that away now, times the 2 million who are getting laid off.

one last rant and then I'm done! The Doctors ask all day along about off label use and we tell them you can't go there. They gloat over and over about how they are using it for this and that - again we tell them you can't go there. We deliver the medicine to the Doctors, they deliver it to you - how they choose to use it is up to them entirely - but again, the connection is somehow made that the drug companies are bad. The logic is flawed it seems.

Yeah, I'm your savior. That's why I have you bent over taking it. Insurance is an abuse of trust as it exists.

Yo all stockholders into that "free enterprise" thing, how's that government mandated insurance dividend? The problems are very basic.

Bad Business Bad Government helping you through your day. Equality..

I think, as a physician, I would rather have the drug companies bring down the cost of the meds rather than try shady marketing techniques like offering kickbacks to docs. The kickbacks suck by the way. They certainly aren't worth risking a breach of ethics.

As for those of you who are so quick to "hate on" physicians; in what other profession do you know of is the professional viewed as a crook for trying to make as much money as possible with the academic degree that took 8 years AFTER high school plus 3-7 yrs of minimum wage OJT prior to making ANY money. Even greedy physicians probably end up doing more charity work in a year than ALL of you do in a lifetime.

And I love the WebMD comment above. Seriously, when are people going to figure out that physicians don't give a flip what you read about this or that...especially on the internet? Do you really think medicine is something that you can just "pick up" by reading a few articles? I wish I could charge patients the way attorneys do. I'd let you talk all day long. Oh yeah...that's right, if your insurance didn't cover it I'd never see a penny; because you think it's your right to have me take care of you.

Give me a break!!!

Drs are figuring things out quickly though. We won't be the worst businessmen for long. Soon enough, physicians are going to realize just how powerful they really are. Pretty soon, if you aren't paying cash, you are F'd. Pay first and then file your own damn insurance claim.

Great comment Mark D!! I agree, people seem to know more about medication, treatment and protocol than the Docs, RN's and hospitals. It's not about common business sense, it's all about what feels good.

I'm all for paying doctors well. It's just the profit denied from them by owners as costs are driven up by business parasites and fiat debt. I think we're in Hell. Reality could be anything we make, and we're XXXXed. As long as it's about money it's going to be violent.

You're rather hot under the collar, there, Mark D.

Do you think it's ethical for doctors to prescribe a medication for something other than what it was designed for, without any idea of the side effects?

screminmimi it happens quite often with doctors - they do it on their own accord and there are many cases where saved lives.

go find a new doc....this current doc of your's is holding you drug/hostage