Posted by jane d on July 21, 2002, at 12:11:00
In reply to Prescription payola? » katekite, posted by Ritch on July 20, 2002, at 12:31:12
>Well, the weird part is that the pharmaceutical company that makes the cancer drug *knew* how many prescriptions were being written for the med and also by *which doctors*. Anyhow, the drug manufacturer is facing some kind of possible trouble because they had the information (doctor's scripts) which would have shown the pharmacist wasn't ordering enough of the drug to match up with the quantity of the drug being *dispensed* at the pharmacy. Weird, huh? Well, what gets me to wondering is.. if the drug co.'s *know* what drugs your pdoc is writing for, who's to say they couldn't engage in kicking back money to the pdoc for the scripts? I really didn't think the drug co's had access to that information, but evidently they do.
Mitch,
They've got that information. I was shocked when I first heard that because it really does make direct payoffs practical since the companies can monitor that they get what they pay for. Even if they just use it to up the psychological pressure "hey buddy, why did you only prescribe my drug 2 x, I thought you agreed with me that it was a good idea" complete with sad looks it's a scary idea. I don't know exactly how they get the information. I assume that either the drug store chains or the insurance drug management companies sell it to them since both now have that information on their computers. Computer technology has a lot to answer for. We probably need to make this information confidential as well.Jane
poster:jane d
thread:112998
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113154.html