PRESCRIPTION FOR PAPERWORK

June 10, 2008 -- "FEW relationships are more personal - and private - than the one between patient and doctor. Unfortunately, this fact appears to be lost on New York's politicians.

Gov. Paterson is now backing legislation designed to limit the influence drug companies wield over doctors. The goal may sound reasonable - but the bill itself would bring a massive and unnecessary government intrusion into individual medical decisions.

For starters, the measure would ban drug companies from giving doctors gifts of more than $50 dollars a year. This would supposedly prevent companies from bribing doctors to prescribe one medication over another. Problem is, bribing is already illegal - all this rule does is add a costly new layer of bureaucracy.

The federal Department of Justice already enforces similar laws regarding the sale of prescription drugs. The anti-kickback statute of the Medicare and Medicaid Patient Protection Act prohibits anybody from offering a rebate, discount or bribe to doctors in return for referring patients to a specific treatment.

Moreover, drug companies themselves have strict guidelines for gift-giving. Sales reps can't offer a gift that costs more than $100, and every gift must either educate or benefit patients in some way. Another rule expressly bars reps from providing gifts that are purely for entertainment - like tickets to concerts and sporting events.

Worse, the bill is predicated on the absurd - and, frankly, offensive - notion that doctors are exceptionally likely to betray their patients for a few extra bucks.

Physicians are intensely trained and highly paid professionals who've sworn to act in the best interests of their charges. The stakes are far too high for free pens and post-it pads to cloud their medical judgment. (Would you buy a car from a dealership just because it offers free jellybeans?)

The bill has other problems. For one, it requires doctors to send out formal notifications every time they change a patient's prescription. This is supposed to promote transparency. But it comes with a terrible side effect - making it far more difficult for doctors to switch patients to new, breakthrough medications.

Suppose this bill becomes law, and your doctor decides that the new drug Xyntha is the best treatment for your hemophilia. He or she couldn't simply change your prescription: First, a "pharmacy benefit manager" would have to jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to satisfy government regulators.

Studies out of Harvard Medical School suggest the United States spends hundreds of billions each year on "health care administration" - paperwork. How many sheets would this bill add to the clipboard?

Gov. Paterson means well in promoting these "reforms" - but he's wrong. The bill would only drive up medical costs by producing reams of added paperwork for doctors, patients and administrators alike."

Bottom Line Time

Many such half-baked laws are introduced at the urging of lawyers. More laws mean more chances to sue someone for breaking a law. Juries love socking it to drug companies...evil big-business don't ya know...so there's always a decent enough chance to strike it rich, forcing doctors and drug manufacturers to spend more and more time creating paper trails in order to show due diligence.

And guess who pays for it all.

Big cities set the standards, unfortunately, and such nonsense eventually works its way down to the burgs and next thing you know the ridiculous is deemed sublime.