http://npalliance.org/press/press-releases/modest-means-modest/
Press Release: October 19, 2012
Leading consumer, health care, senior
and community advocates voiced strong opposition to emergency regulations
weakening the state’s prescription and medical device marketing law at today’s Department
of Public Health hearing.
The regulations implement a law
passed last summer to relax state restrictions on meals provided by
pharmaceutical and medical
device companies to doctors and other prescribers. Under the previous
law, meals may not be provided unless in a clinical setting. The amended
statute permits “modest meals and refreshments” to be offered at educational
programs outside of a health care setting, such as a restaurant.
Representatives of numerous advocacy groups testified in favor of
improving the emergency regulations. The rules
ignored the legislative direction to limit permitted meals to those considered
modest, and instead defined “modest” as “similar to what a health care
practitioner might purchase when dining at his or her own expense.”
“We urge the Department to comply
with the directive given in the amended statute and define ‘modest meals and
refreshments’ in clear, concrete and enforceable terms. Alcohol should be expressly prohibited, as
alcohol is contraindicated for educating doctors about drugs and treatments
that affect their patients’ health,” said Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, Executive
Director of Health Care For All. “If the proposed regulations are not
significantly strengthened, we will inevitably go back to the days of
pharmaceutical and device sales representatives inappropriately wining and
dining our doctors.”
“The bottom line is that drug
companies wine and dine doctors and other prescribers to sell their newest, most
profitable brand name drugs, not to provide unbiased academic information on medical care,”
testified Deirdre Cummings, MASSPIRG’s legislative director. “While the whole
practice ought to be eliminated, at the very least, the regulations should
accurately reflect the law. Free meals provided by the drug industry to
physicians must truly be modest, and in an environment conducive to learning.”
“We urge DPH to establish a concrete monetary limit
to define the term ‘modest,’ and we felt strongly that these meals should
exclude alcohol. Instead, the proposed regulations have no monetary
restriction, and permit the provision of alcohol,” Cummings added
“The medical profession prides
itself on putting patients first. By not setting a clear dollar limit in its
definition of ‘modest meals and refreshments,’ the Department of Public Health
compromises our profession’s integrity,” said David Tian, a fourth-year Harvard
Medical School student and national chair of the American Medical Student
Association (AMSA) PharmFree campaign. “Patients deserve to know that their doctors’ prescribing
choices are determined by the best scientific evidence, not which company promised
the fanciest meal to lure prescribers into a one-sided presentation.”
As a result of the new regulations,
drug companies are currently free to ply doctors with lavish multi-course meals
and drinks, paid for by pharmaceutical industry marketing budgets, and ultimately tacked on to the
price of prescriptions.
“AARP believes relationships
between drug companies and doctors should be transparent and free from
conflicts of interest,” said Jessica Costantino, advocacy director of AARP
Massachusetts, which serves more than 800,000 members age 50 and older in the
commonwealth. “The decision by the Public Health Council to approve regulations
that further weaken the state’s Prescription Drug Gift Ban Law, ultimately puts the best interest of
patients at risk.”
“Massachusetts is in danger of
plummeting below its former place as a national leader in protecting patients
from pharma marketing practices that interfere with trust between patients and
their health care providers. The regulations also ignore the intent of the
legislature by scrapping required disclosures to the state of industry payments to nurse practitioners
and physicians assistants, which will not be required under the new federal
transparency law that covers physicians.” says Marcia Hams, Director of
Prescription Access and Quality at Community Catalyst. “These prescribers are
increasingly the target of industry marketing now that they are critical to
meeting primary care needs in the state.”
“I just want the best for my
patients, and protecting the patient-physician relationship should be the focus
of industry-oriented legislation, which the current gift ban regulations fail
to do”, said Dr. Constance
Liu, OB/Gyn department at Boston Medical Center and Boston leader of the
National Physicians Alliance.
Following the hearing, the
Department of Public Health plans to review testimony and issue permanent rules in
November.
http://npalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/NPA_2012_Current_Program1.pdf
NPA Annual Conference
National Physicians Alliance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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National
Physicians Alliance
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Motto
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Service, Integrity and Advocacy
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Formation
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2005
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Type
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Headquarters
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Location
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Membership
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20,000 physicians
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President
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Valerie Arkoosh, MD, MPH
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Key people
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Jean Silver-Isenstadt, MD, PhD
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Website
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The National Physicians Alliance (NPA)
is a national, multi-specialty medical organization founded in 2005 by former
leaders of the American Medical
Student Association. The organization's mission statement reads:
"The National Physicians Alliance creates research and education programs
that promote active engagement of physicians with their communities to achieve
high quality, affordable health care for all. The NPA offers a professional
home to physicians across medical specialties who share a commitment to professional
integrity and health justice."
The NPA was founded as an alternative to
traditional trade associations that operate in a guild tradition, primarily
serving the economic interests of physicians rather than advocating first and
foremost on behalf of patients and public health. The NPA does not accept funding from pharmaceutical or
medical device companies.
A 501c(3)
organization based in Washington DC,
the NPA has a membership of approximately 20,000 physicians. Members must have
graduated with an MD or DO degree from a professional school accredited by the
LCME or the AOA-COCA; or hold a license to practice medicine within the United
States.
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