Comments on: Feds Eyeing Docs Over Device Consulting Fees

By: AV Block

AV Block — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:01:15 +0000

THEHCC.TV, you are wrong. Orthopedic implants comprise a small portion of the total cost of an individual patient’s length of stay at a hospital.

Another point… Physicians are the innovators, and if you regulate this industry further, there is a trade-off: you lose innovation.

And you, like so many other well-intentioned liberals, are simply creating another problem by resorting to regulation… i.e. at the end of the day you are simply allowing bribery of lawyers - witness the astounding payments made to Ashcroft’s firm for compliance. We don’t want to create another growth industry for greedy lawyers.

Can’t believe the continued assault on free markets. You attack doctors, who clearly contribute more to society than corporate lawyers and investment bankers, and invite device companies to outsource their R&D, innovate abroad, and introduce innovative products outside the U.S. By regulating the device industry (no matter what, information asymmetry between physician and patient is a reality), you are simply creating more jobs for lawyers. Defensive medicine as a result of greedy lawyers is a pernicious contributor of healthcare costs, and ask anyone outside of the US, and they will certainly say the legal landscape in the US makes it incredibly hard to do business. Take an unrelated industry, finance, as an example. Witness Hong Kong and London leading NYC in finance as a consequence of many factors, including over-regulation and the awful legal business climate in the uS.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:37:55 +0000

It was time.

Nobody had addressed the ethics of doctors who demand and expect payments.

After a few years of this, the next frontier will be plaintiff lawyers who manufacture cases.

By: THEHCC.TV

THEHCC.TV — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:29:30 +0000

The significance of these kickbacks is not just that some surgeons pocket some extra cash, millions of dollars at times. The significance is that is causes the doctors to be corruptly loyal to a particular brand of implant and allows the makers to jack up prices each year in price inflation. When the hospital administrators try to push back, the powerful surgeons just threaten to jump over to the hospital across the street. Price inflation, and not unit growth, is the main growth for these implant companies. Orthopedic surgery overall is one of the largest budget expenses for Medicare.
Fact, orthopedic implants comprise 4% of the total inpatient expenditure for Medicare CMS. It ranks at the top, ties with coronary stenting, as the costliest procedure category. Fact, the price inflation on implants is the largest driver of growth for the implant companies, not increase in implants used. Translation, the stent companies are ripping off taxpayers for billions using a corrupted surgeon scheme of rewarding them with kickbacks.