The doctors in this article by Jeff Wiehe about drug company money flowing to doctors seem to think that the drug companies are awfully poor businessmen. They insist that the drug company money has absolutely no influence on them when they take it. They don’t come out and say that the drug companies are chumps, but, to me, that would seem to be the natural extension of what they are saying. The drug companies are spending piles of money on these doctors and getting no return on their investment.
I’m sure most of these doctors are honest and trying hard to do right by their patients. But, as someone or other once said, “the power of gold over the hearts of men surpasses all understanding.” If you’re getting fat checks from a company, I have to think that at least makes you think favorably toward that company. Maybe such favorability results in prescriptions for those cases that are right on the line – gives the drug company the tie breaker, so to speak. Maybe those good thoughts subconsciously sensitizes the doctor’s brain to recognize problems that can be treated by a drug. Obviously these drug companies believe that paying these doctors is a good investment. We should at least consider the possibility that they’re right.
My girlfriend — shuttled around from one type of state-sponsored insurance to another as the Governor tries to cut costs — has had more than one doctor try to switch her medication from Paxil to Prozac. She suffers from bi-polar disorder. Both our lives were miserable until she convinced him to switch her back.
I’m convinced this manuver was nothing more than an attempt to benefit the “home team,” Eli Lilly.
There may be less of this sort of thing in private practice, but I doubt it.