Docs for Sale: US Government Issues Rare Fraud Alert as Big Pharma Spends Billions Bribing Medics to Prescribe Their Drugs
- Docs for Sale: US Government Issues Rare Fraud Alert as Big Pharma Spends Billions Bribing Medics to Prescribe Their Drugs
by Ashley Frawley, https://www.rt.com/
Health officials hope the move will push the drug giants to end their lucrative, thinly veiled ‘speaker programs’ for favored doctors. Fat chance – it’s too profitable a business for them, even though the social costs are huge.
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For the first time since 2014, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a rare special fraud alert highlighting allegations that major pharmaceutical companies have been throwing billions at doctors as part of questionable ‘speaker programs’.
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These programs have been accused of offering thin cover for bribes to favored doctors in return for promoting and prescribing the companies’ drugs and devices. In return, medical professionals were given lucrative speaking fees and expensive trips and dinners for themselves and their partners. The alert states that some high prescribing healthcare professionals were paid over $100,000 in speaking fees. These honoraria were sometimes attached to agreements that the speaker would write a minimum number of prescriptions per year for the companies’ drugs.
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