State doctors receive millions from pharmaceutical firms

[madokie]

If I was a bett'n man I'd bet that the doctors at the VA center near here are on this list. If I'd kept all the pills that I won't take that they've given me these last 8 years I'd have 5 or 6 gallons of pills alone so I think they get kickbacks too.

By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer

Search for your doctor and read more information about the money physicians receive from pharmaceutical companies.
A University of Oklahoma employee, a part-timer at the Tulsa City-County Health Department and a psychiatrist with the Veterans Administration are among doctors in Tulsa County who have accepted payments, meals or educational items from pharmaceutical companies in the past three years, according to a database published by a nonprofit organization.


Oklahoma doctors received more than $6.3 million from 12 pharmaceutical companies between 2009 and the second quarter of 2011, although not all companies reported for all quarters.

Doctors in Tulsa County received nearly $1.6 million during that time. The three employees at public institutions were among those receiving the most money.

The data were provided by the pharmaceutical companies and culled by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization that has made the data public on its website, available at tulsaworld.com/dollarsfordocs

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=17&articleid=20111024_17_A1_CUTLIN143530&r=7687

[Scuba]

1. But it's OK. Sick people will pay for it. n/t

[Maine-ah]

2. one of my Mom's doctors is on this list

I found him to be an SOB before I read this...and if we weren't so isolated in terms of healthcare up here, I would have switched her by now. He's the only one in his specialty up here.

[HereSince1628]

3. Over-supplys of pills was an item on a survey I completed for the VA

recently. I take that as evidence that the VA system is concerned about wasting money in that way.

The VA has negotiated drug prices with pharma and the VA uses generics wherever they are available. Moreover the VA dispenses pills in a manner that makes them as cheap as possible. That includes dispensing 3 month supplies as large doses that must be split before consumng. All that enables vets to get the most medication with the smallest co-pays. The effort to keep costs low can indeed result in the shipping of large bottles of pills. That's clearly a waste if you don't take them.

Sometimes a medication change happens when you have a large supply of current meds on hand. That also wastes the pills, but hopefully not gallons of them.

If you know you'll refuse to take the pills, you could help out your fellow vets who need the pills by telling your clinician up front that you don't want the meds so that she/he doesn't prescribe them. You could also call the VA pharmacy that serves you and tell them to not ship you pills automatically (that happens for my standing Rx's for oral diabetes, statin, and blood pressure meds).

[madokie]

4. I do all that but sometimes I don't know up front that I won't be taking a pill that is prescribed

I'm pretty sensitive to a lot of meds and the doctor keeps on prescribing more and more even though I tell him that they don't work. for instance I have PAD and my doctor has tried a good half dozen different meds to dilate my blood vessels to help with the circulation in my legs but all they do is give me head aches because that part of my body is fine, its only in my legs and to a lesser degree my arms. Its hard to keep taking a med when when you do and you lean down it feels like someone hits you in the head with a sledge hammer. I keep asking my doctor to prescribe a few pills to see what they do if they help or hurt before they send me home with three months worth but for some reason that hasn't happened yet. I think the man is getting a kickback from big pharma even though his name isn't on this list.