I realize it's been quite a while since I taught - or was in school myself - but I'm distressed…
Morning Headlines 3/18/16
OCR announces two breach settlements stemming from stolen, unencrypted laptops. The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research will pay a $3.9 million fine, while North Memorial Health Care of Minnesota will pay $1.5 million.
Hospital exec quits, compares $764M upgrade to Challenger disaster
Charles Perry, MD, the CMIO of Queens and Elmhurst Hospital Centers resigns over concerns about the upcoming NYC Health + Hospitals Epic go-live. He compared the project to the Challenger space shuttle launch of 1986 and called for a delay to prevent patient harm.
McKesson Falls After Saying It Will Cut 1,600 Jobs in US
McKesson lays off 1,600 employees, or four percent of its US workforce, after losing several key customers.
Now There’s Proof: Docs Who Get Company Cash Tend to Prescribe More Brand-Name Meds
A ProPublica report finds that doctors who receive payments or gifts from pharmaceutical companies are two to three times more likely to prescribe a brand-name drug instead of a generic alternative.
Pro Publica’s article overstated the results of their own research. From the study’s Discussion:
“Our analysis intended to see whether payments from the industry writ large were
related to different prescribing rates of brand-name drugs. We have not established (nor did we try to establish) a causal link. This relationship between payments and increased brand-name prescribing rates could be an indication that these doctors believe more strongly in the value of brand-name products, either through their training or clinical practice, or that the pharmaceutical spending influenced their choices. There is certainly a plausible reverse causation here that drug companies give money to physicians who already are heavy brand-name prescribers.”
Thanks for sharing the fantastic article from ProPublica on physicians getting payments to prescribe preferred meds. We all knew this, but the proof really backs it up.