ProPublica Dollars for Doctors Articles Miss the Mark

Occasionally the media misses the point on important stories.  This is clearly the case with ProPulica’s Dollars for Docs campaign.  By focusing on “payments to physicians,” they continue to miss the mark that a vast majority of those payments will one day lead to improved lives for perhaps millions of patients.   Previously we reported on local and regional news outlets that are using ProPubica’s updated payment data to write articles about physician payments.  Below is a summary to several States that have worked with ProPublica and their Dollars for Docs database to produce such articles.    California  Several articles in California were published using the Dollars for Docs database.  The Contra Costa Times reported that companies paid doctors in California more than $241 million from 2009 to 2012 (the most of any state).  The beginning of the article lists Dr. Moshe Lewis, who was paid $224,000 from five drug makers for speaking, consulting, travel and meals between 2009-2012.  Lewis said he lectures to doctors about new medications on the horizon. “I don’t over-endorse one product over another.  I try to align myself with companies that I find to be ethical, that have not had multiple products pulled from the market.”  He supports the transparency and insists the money does not influence him.  “Pharmaceutical companies used to take doctors to dinner, but that was banned years ago,” said Dr. Arthur Chanzel Jeng, an infection control ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs