New measures to stop bribing doctors in the USA and Europe

[Miguel H Bronchud]

Subtitle: “Primum non nuocere: Primum non Corrupti”

Since the Hippocratic Oath banned ancient Greek doctors from harming their patients (“Primum non Nuocere”), other dangers have entered the clinical scenario. One of them is corruption practices as Marketing tools. Recent scandals have given impetus to new anti-corruption policies in both the USA and Europe. Latest examples:.
1): Immucor settles bribes probe; pays $2.5m for stock suit
Blood transfusion specialist Immucor has settled a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into allegations of the company's role in bribing doctors for supply contracts. Without admitting or denying any misdemeanours, Immucor has agreed that it will desist from similar violations in the future. There was no monetary penalty linked to the settlement.
In connection with the same investigation, the firm's president and CEO Dr Gioacchino De Chirico has agreed to pay a $30,000 civil penalty and also agreed to refrain from any future violations. The CEO did not admit or deny any wrongdoing. The SEC probe was initiated in August 2005, in parallel with an inquiry carried out by Italian authorities after Dr De Chirico temporarily stood down from his position during an internal investigation into several payments made to doctors.
In January, the Norcross, Georgia-based company settled with one of the hospitals where the doctor worked, paying $122,000 in fines, penalties and restitution (see Clinica No 1242, p 13). In conjunction with the bribery case, a US district court in Georgia has finalised a $2.5m settlement to be made by Immucor to plaintiffs over allegations the company inflated its share price in 2004 and 2005 by misquoting financial information. This payment will be made in consideration of an unconditional release of all claims against Immucor and individual defendants.
Full Title: CLINICA - World Medical Technology News - http://www.clinica.co.uk

2): Medtronic faces new questions from Grassley over doctor kickbacks
Medtronic has come under fresh scrutiny from Senator Charles Grassley as part of the US congressman's fight to expose medical device and drug companies that offer kickbacks to doctors who use the firm's products.
The company confirmed last week that it received a letter from Senator Grassley, who has been pushing for a federal law that requires healthcare companies to make public all the payments made to doctors for services, such as consulting, research, lectures and conference attendance. In the letter, the Senator asked Medtronic to explain, among other things, payments made to spine surgeons after 2003.
The company is reported to be working towards a response to the inquiry and plans to meet with the Senator's staff. In a New York Times article, the firm maintained the payments are part of the normal course of working, and that it is critical for the company to collaborate with doctors for the development of its devices.
The Senator's inquiry follows a federal investigation, initiated in 2003, into the company's practices, after two former Medtronic employees accused the firm of offering financial sweeteners to doctors to encourage the use of Medtronic products between 1998 and 2003. In July 2006, the company paid $40m to the US government to settle the claims (see Clinica No 1215, p 15). It has never admitted to any wrongdoing.
However, according to the lawyer of Jacqueline Kay Poteet, who was one of the whistleblowers, Medtronic has continued to pay millions of dollars in unlawful consulting fees each year, following the settlement. In a supplemental complaint filed in early 2006, Ms Poteet described how Medtronic had -brazenly renewed in January 2005 their enormous sham consulting payments to many of their key doctors", after the company was satisfied that the action pending against it would likely be settled and that the government would look no farther into the firm's documents.
Clinica obtained from Andrew Carr, Ms Poteet's lawyer from Memphis-based firm Bateman Gibson, a list of payments made by Medtronic to doctors and medical organisations between January and October 2006. The payments, ranging between thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, totalled approximately $5.5m. This list, said Mr Carr, is not exhaustive.
He told Clinica: "I am very pleased that Senator Grassley and his staff have undertaken this investigation and committed the manpower necessary for a thorough examination of these practices. It is my expectation that this investigation will mark a turning point where these corrupt bribery practices will come to an end."
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Present Healthcare is still based on Disease rather than Health. Future Healthcare will require new methods to stop progression of serious diseases, like cancers and cardiovascular diseases, as well as new methods to recover from ill-health, like regenerative medicine and Psycho-Physiotherapy Rehabilitation. This is the key of the "Circle of Helath Concept" developed by the European Institute for Health Care (EIHCA).