Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17095

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Moore J
3 bills tackle drug costs, prescription practices
The Star Tribune 2010 Jan 22
http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=82454922

Abstract:

A consumer-insurer coalition is facing off against doctors and drug companies in the Legislature.

Full text:

Each year, Americans dole out billions of dollars for prescription medications — and drugmakers dole out billions of dollars to influence the doctors who prescribe them.

The way patients are prescribed those drugs and the role pharmaceutical companies play in the process is at the heart of a fight shaping up in the Minnesota Legislature between a consumer-insurer coalition on one side and a coalition of physicians and drug companies on the other.

On Monday an unusual joint hearing of the Commerce and Labor and the Business, Industry and Jobs committees will begin debate on three bills designed to improve doctors’ prescribing skills, reduce the influence of pharmaceutical companies — and perhaps reduce overall drug spending by consumers.

On one side of the table: those who believe drug industry marketing exerts pervasive influence on doctors, patients and governments, compromising the quality of health care and inflating costs. They claim the drug industry spends $7.2 billion a year on marketing to physicians.

That view is advanced by a newly formed group called the Minnesota Prescription Coalition, a diverse group that includes AARP Minnesota, insurers HealthPartners and Medica, labor unions, hospitals and consumer groups. The coalition supports the proposed legislation.

“If we can save money in the long run and improve quality and safety in prescribing, I think that’s a pretty good combination,” said Peter Wyckoff, a coalition spokesman.

Opposing the legislation is the pharmaceutical industry and some doctors, including members of the Association of Clinical Researchers and Educators (ACRE), who claim their relationship with drug companies results in better care for patients. The group is co-sponsoring a forum on “Restoring the Value of Collaborative Relationships in Medicine” Saturday in Eagan.