Big Pharma and Medical Industry Dole Out $3.5 Billion in Kickbacks to Doctors and Teaching Hospitals

By Carolanne Wright

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

“It is scary how many similarities there are between this [pharmaceutical] industry and the mob.” ~ former Vice-President of Pfizer pharmaceuticals.

The U.S. federal government has released disturbing data about the profiteering nature behind our medical system. Namely, a staggering 4.4 million payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals by medical device and pharmaceutical companies.

According to officials from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), during the last five months of 2013, big pharma and medical companies paid a total of $3.5 billion in kickbacks to 546,000 physicians and 1,360 teaching hospitals.

If you believe pharmaceutical and medical corporations hold the health of the general public in high regard, it’s time to reconsider.

Bringing Transparency to the Medical Establishment — Somewhat

Launched in 2014, the Open Payments website was created — in accordance with the Affordable Care Act — to document payments by private companies to doctors and hospitals in a move towards transparency. Unfortunately, the site is far from perfect.

The platform isn’t easy to navigate and users are forced to wade through seemingly endless reams of data to glean practical information. Even searching for a specific physician is near impossible. Adding to the confusion, a percentage of drug and device companies attributed payments to multiple subsidiaries, instead of assigning them to a single parent company. Take Johnson & Johnson, who posted payments under a minimum of 15 subsidiaries, while device maker Medtronic and pharmaceutical company Novartis both used six.

Fortunately, Charles Ornstein, a senior reporter at ProPublica, has decoded a good portion of the data and found the following:

The top three categories for payments include royalty or license, promotional speaking and consulting fee. Next were food and beverage, travel and lodging, grant and education. Followed by honoraria, gift, non accredited training and ownership or investment interest. And lastly, space rental or facility fees, accredited training, charitable contribution and entertainment.

More data was edited, censored or obscured before publication than the government had claimed there would be.

Due to irregular data and other issues, CMS hasn’t released about a third of the data for the period between August and December 2013.

Companies lavish an enormous amount of money on royalty payments.

Royalty and licensure payments to doctor and hospital inventors totaled $976 million. “Genentech Inc. alone paid $122.5 million in royalties in the last five months of last year. Depuy Synthes Sales Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, spent $35.9 million in royalties,” writes Ornstein in Our First Dive Into the New Open Payments System.

Medical doctors and teaching hospitals ranked highest of those who received the most money.

Companies are required by law to report payments to medical doctors, teaching hospitals, osteopaths, dentists, chiropractors, optometrists and podiatrists. According to the data, medical doctors received an astounding 69% of payments, with teaching hospitals coming in second at 25%. A mere 6% of the payments went to the remaining groups.

CONTINUE READING:

Previous articles by Carolanne Wright:

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