Dollars for Docs? Has BigPharma been paying off your doctor?

This investigative effort is a joint project of ProPublica and NPR to shed some light on doctors who’ve been at the trough too long, and perhaps sacrificed their integrity for compensation from BigPharma.

This collaboration also includes The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, PBS Nightly Business Report and Consumer Reports.

Read more about it:

by Tom Detzel

ProPublica, Oct. 18, 2010, 9:54 p.m.

Drug companies have long kept the names of their speakers—and how much they pay them—secret. But seven companies have begun posting doctors’ names and compensation on their web sites, some as the result of legal settlements with the federal government.

ProPublica took these disclosures, totaling $257.8 million to about 17,700 providers, and assembled them into a single, comprehensive database that allows patients to search for their physician.

It was not easy. The firms constructed their sites in a way that made it near impossible to analyze or, in some cases, even download their data. And each firm disclosed its data differently. Some, for example, simply included speaking. Others also detailed consulting. Sometimes, the value of business travel and meals were listed, too.

ProPublica is committed to updating the database as additional companies release their payment data. The health care reform law, signed in March, mandates that all drug companies report such data to the federal government beginning in 2013. That information will be posted on a government web site.

Several things to bear in mind about the data:

• Only the seven companies that have disclosed payments on their web sites are included. (They are AstraZeneca, Cephalon, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Pfizer.) Their combined prescription drug sales amounted to 36 percent of the $300 billion U.S. market in 2009. Though a substantial share, more than 70 drug companies operate in the U.S. As such, the data may not be wholly representative of the industry.
• The data is from payments made in 2009 and 2010. But not all companies reported payments for every quarter during that period.
• Although most of the money went to physicians, other practitioners, including nurses and pharmacists, also are included.
• Practitioner names and addresses are listed as the companies released them and may vary. For instance, some companies include a middle initial, and others do not. Some companies list different cities for the same individual. This may happen because professionals may have practices in multiple locations or because they provided different addresses for payments to the companies.
• Many providers have similar names, so check addresses and verify with your provider before concluding he or she is listed.
• As noted above, the companies’ reports cover different periods and include payments for different services. Some companies include payments only to speakers, while others include consultants and advisers, as well as meals and business travel. (Details are included on each company’s page [1].)
• A physician on the list may be getting money from other companies that have yet to disclose payments. A physician who is not listed could be receiving payments from one or more of those companies.
• Eli Lilly has in some cases used different middle initials for the same individual.

If you are a practitioner and believe you should not be in this database, or if you are a patient with concerns, contact us at ornstein.weber@propublica.org [2].