If you wonder why doctors are not mobilizing against the opioid epidemic, or the ridiculously high price of prescription drugs, just look at this statistic: drug and medical-device makers made payments of more than a quarter of a billion dollars in 2015 to California doctors.
That's from federal records. Other research by the ballot initiative campaign to mandate lower price prescription drugs through Prop 61 shows the California Medical Association's (CMA) president has a medical practice that in Riverside that received more than $1.6 million from drug and medical device makers from August 2013 through the end of 2015. Other CMA trustees got big payments too, and the Association's foundation itself is funded big time by drugmakers.
Wow! Is it any wonder then that the California Medical Association still stands in the way in Sacramento of enacting reforms to require doctors to check an existing state database before prescribing narcotics to a patient for the first time? Or that it doesn't want the state to pay lower price for prescription drugs through Prop 61?
This short video tells the tale of the drug companies undue influence over the medical association in CA and doctors. Watch it and ask your own doctor about it.
Patients should look up their own doctors on the Open Payments Website too. The next prescription they receive might look a little different in light of knowledge the drugmaker put some money or gifts into their pockets, reporting that is mandated under the Affordable Care Act.
More troubling is that the California Medical Association continues to pimp for the drug companies in the statehouse and court of public opinion. Consider this from the Prop 61 campaign for lower drug prices:
The website of the California Medical Assn. Foundation (CMAF) currently lists drug giants AstraZeneca, Genentech, Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer among its 11 "corporate sponsors." These six drug companies, not coincidentally, have collectively contributed $23.75 million to the campaign to defeat Prop. 61.
Meanwhile, the CMA's website says both it and the foundation welcome corporate sponsors. In this regard, the website says: "Learn how joining the CMA & CMAF Corporate Sponsorship Program will benefit you and your company." Then the website indicates that corporate sponsorship status comes with a minimum $100,000 contribution.
The CMA website outlines in detail the perks a corporate sponsor will receive, including "recognition of corporate partnership in all CMA/CMAF's annual promotional materials...private lunch and meeting with CEO's of the CMA and CMAF up to three times annually." However, the CMA website does not identify such sponsors on the part of its website that is accessible to the public.
Those of us scratching our head at why the CMA has been so solicitous of the drugmakers' positions in legislation and regulation have a much clearer picture now. It's something legislators should remember as much as patients next time the medical association renders its prescriptions on reform.
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Jamie Court is president of the nonprofit public interest group Consumer Watchdog.