This came out in Saturday's Globe: The Patrick administration looks ready to bow to PhRMA, by not requiring companies to disclose how and whom they're paying for clinical trials. Go figure — someone pays you money, you're more likely to say their stuff works. Should that obvious conflict-of-interest just go unchecked?
Public disclosure of where your testing money is coming from is pretty namby-pamby as it is. Lots of stuff gets hidden in plain sight. So backing off of this simple and necessary requirement basically says the law has no teeth at all.
And to add insult to injury, here's some unidentified somebody-or-other from HHS:
“We believe these rules are going to be the toughest in the nation,” said the official, who did not want to be named because the regulations are not supposed to be made public until next week. “There are people who are going to say we went too far and people who will say we didn't go far enough. When this happens, it usually means you've struck the right balance.”
Or, perhaps it means you just made a complete dog's breakfast of the whole thing. JudyAnn, is that you? You've got to be kidding us.
Nice to see the administration really getting serious about controlling health care costs. Sheesh.
No to Post It notes or coffee mugs, but yes to undocumented research funding. Some people might be upset about the coffee mugs while others might be upset that we’re letting pharmaceutical companies run in the shadows without any oversite. So everyone in the HHS is patting themselves on that back thinking they’ve struck the right balance.
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p>Well it’s now unfortunately obvious that the Deval Patrick administration doesn’t want to take meaningful action and are bowing to PhRMA. Coffee mugs are not driving health care costs. Plus it does not impact the inherent conflict of interest issues.
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p>Cleveland Clinic is taking the first step and making disclosures of doctor relationships. Maybe someone with a blog that’s “running a hospital” might take similar steps and have someone in the state show some leadership on this issue unlike Governor Patrick.
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p>The article notes that Merck and Eli Lilly plan to start publicly disclosing their payments to doctors next year. So it’s not like this issue is unknown and we want to do something completely outlandish. I’m very disappointed.
Drugs are the solution! The magic bullet for every ill. Just ask the world renowed doctor at Mass. General who is funded by the drug companies and says their meds are the solution. Suprise!!!
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p>Parent hooking their kids on drugs due to bogus bi-polar diagnosises from shame physicians. Go figue. Tie a bow on it, problem expleained and solved.
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p>It not just mugs and pens. It’s bonuses, “research” funds, vactiontions, golffing trip, “conferences”, etc.
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p>Yes, meds play a role, but some doctors want the easy out and the cash.
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On the one hand, I agree with this:
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p>but, yet, on the other hand, there are times when medications of some sort or other really are necessary.
At least some action was taken, but I can see the point of view of those who say it’s not far enough.