Saturday, April 12, 2014

Which came first, money or patient interests?

If a patient with macular degeneration (黄斑變性) can be treated with either a medicine that costs either $2,000 or $50 with the same effect, guess which medicine eye doctors will choose? If eye doctor chose $2,000 medicine for many thousands of his patients, he can become the doctor with top reimbursement in Medicare, $21M in 2012 from Medicare alone for ophthalmologist Dr. Melgen. The reason for doctors to choose $2,000 instead of $50 with the same effect: The pharmaceutical company that makes the $2,000 drug gives lucrative rebates for eye doctors who use this expensive medicine. Money instead of patient interests is the top priority for some high-paid doctors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/business/doctor-with-big-medicare-billings-is-no-stranger-to-scrutiny.html?smid=pl-share

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