Help Wanted: Anti-sales representatives to travel the state of Maine to talk with doctors and health care providers in order to counter what pharmaceutical sales representatives are telling them. Competitive salary, generous fringe benefits, state car and credit card. Position reports to Winston Smith in the Ministry of Truth.
I’m making this up, right? NOT! (Well, I did make up the part about Winston Smith and the Ministry of Truth. That came from George Orwell’s novel 1984.) According to LD 839, which was passed by the Maine legislature last year, the state is supposed to have an “academic detailing” program up and running by January 1, 2008. The purpose of the law, according to the preamble, is to “enhance the health of the residents of the State” and “improve the quality of decisions regarding drug prescribing.”
The program components include “outreach and education” including “personal visits from program staff.” There it is, the smoking gun. The state is going to hire people to go out and PERSONALLY visit doctors in order to “improve” the decisions they make. Just what we patients are looking for, a doctor whose decision making has been “improved” by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. For those who have forgotten, these are the same people who engineered the Medicare billing fiasco that sent $56 million of your tax dollars into a black hole.
Who’s paying for this Orwellian scheme? Pharmaceutical manufacturers doing business with the state must pay a $1,000 annual fee. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America list 65 member companies on their Website. Assuming all of these companies do business in Maine (which they don’t) that’s $65,000 into the kitty each year. With salary, benefits and expenses, that would support about one truth teller a year. Where’s the rest of the money going to come from? You guessed it, the General Fund — your tax dollars at work. So, not only is DHHS sending out a truth squad to “improve” you doctor’s decision making, but you are footing the bill!
There are two messages here, one for business owners in Maine, the other for consumers. If you are a business owner pray that your sales practices don’t catch the attention of a legislator. Should you run afoul of the legislature, you could find your sales representatives being shadowed by a taxpayer-funded truth squad to “improve” the decisions made by your customers. And for consumers, the next time you see your doctor ask yourself, is the decision your doctor just made guided by that Harvard Medical School diploma on the wall or did it originate in the Ministry of Truth in Augusta?
When we moved our public relations business to Maine we were astonished when CEO after CEO told us they didn’t want the name of their company to appear in newspaper stories. “It only brings the regulators from Augusta to mess around in our business,” they told us.
Maine has the 48th worst business climate in the nation. A well deserved ranking from the look of it.
Postscript Before posting this article I called DHHS and asked to talk with someone familiar with this program. I was promised a call back. Four days later nobody has called. Either they don’t know what is going on or they don’t want to talk about it. My money’s on the latter.
February 6 Update I received a call from Jude Walsh in Governor Bladacci’s Office of Health Policy where she is Director of Pharmacy Affairs. Walsh said the program startup has been delayed because Maine is working with Vermont and New Hampshire, where similar programs are in the works. The three states have received a planning grant and will be meeting next Monday (Feb. 11) with an expert from Harvard Medical School to begin working on a curriculum for the academic detailers. The academic detailing program in Pennsylvania will serve as a blueprint for the three-state initiative. Rules for Maine’s program have been drafted but are not yet available to the public.
(Originally posted 1/25/2008)
No comments:
Post a Comment