Doctor kickbacks

[Deb]

http://www.postbulletin.com/business/ma ... 3b14d.html

Mayo took in over 3 million. Johns Hopkins only $4600.

[tex]

Deb,

And that was the take during only 5 months. I've been wondering when those reports would begin to show up. I had forgotten all about that law, since it took a while for it to become effective.

Less than 5 percent of contracts submitted to the committee are rejected. Mayo officials say that's primarily because its staff are very clear on the rules and work hard to make sure any potential contract follows the clinic's regulation.

Well sure they have a policy on this. They're certainly going to try to protect the reputation of the clinic. They couldn't afford not to. But that's a mighty low rejection rate. Apparently the Mayo's policy is pretty liberal. It's sorta like government licensing programs — as long as you register with the state and pay the tax, you're good to go. By requiring registration, the hospital has some assurance that doctors won't get quite as flagrant as they might without at least some minimum level of oversight. Still, in defense of the Mayo, any policy is certainly better than no policy, which may be the case at some hospitals.

However, if an employee speaks in favor of a Mayo-developed product, they cannot accept payment for that speaking engagement.

Naturally they wouldn't receive compensation for promoting the product — that would look bad. But fortunately those considerations are well-covered by the consulting fees and royalties that they receive.

It's certainly reassuring to see that (according to the Mayo's spokesman) all those millions won't influence doctors' decisions when prescribing drugs or recommending implanted devices or prosthetics. At least there won't be as much of that going on under the table anymore (until the drug companies figure out how to get around the law).

Thanks for the link,
Tex