FinancialJuneteenth.com
By Ryan Velez
Posted June 6th 2016
While it’s been often said by doctors that payments from pharmaceutical companies have no bearing on the way they prescribe name-brand drugs, NPR presents evidence that may be cause for some skepticism in a new article.
Using a ProPublica analysis, they found that there is indeed a correlation between doctors that do receive these kind of payments versus those who don’t. In general, internists who receive no payments have roughly a 20% name-brand prescribing rate, while those who get over $5,000 worth in payments show rates of around 30%. Other fields, such as family medicine, ophthalmology, and psychiatry, also show similar correlations. Payments mentioned in the analysis include promotional speaking, consulting, business travel, meals, royalties and gifts, among others.
Even with this information, NPR reminds us that this data does not prove that payments from the industry steer doctors to prescribe certain drugs. However, it does affirm that there is some relationship in place, one that often benefits the drug industry and one that patients may want to take into consideration.
At the same time, it’s very important to remember how widespread the practice of taking industry payment is. There is notable variation between certain states, for example, the percentage of payments in Nevada, Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina were at least twice as high as in Vermont, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Maine. Overall, though, 7 out of 10 internists and family practitioners nationwide who wrote out at least 1,000 prescriptions for Medicare patients reported taking payments.
Dr. Richard Baron, president and chief executive of the American Board of Internal Medicine, adds that many doctors almost have to go out of their way to avoid taking these payments, and says that those that do so often do it out of a greater skepticism regarding name brands. Several other doctors interviewed for the NPR story, including those who take industry donations well over the average, all denied any relationship between that and their choices in prescriptions.
According to NPR, several studies show that generics work just as well as the name brand drugs for most patients, and that they still have to adhere to the same rigid FDA standards. Name-brand drugs, by comparison, often cost significantly more, while having much higher levels of advertising. In general, though, customer satisfaction levels are very similar overall between name-brand and generic drugs.