No Freebie Fallout: Doomed Delis In Massachusetts
6 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // June 4th, 2008 // 3:45 pm
The state’s effort to ban gifts to docs is certainly a flashpoint - drugmakers have threatened to curtail investment in Massachusetts, biotechs are giving state politicians a cold shoulder, and some prominent - and conflicted - docs have written angry editorials.
Now, restaurant owners are voicing their anger. Kevin Abt of RestaurantsToYou.com, a regional broker who matches corporate clients with restaurants and delis, wrote a letter to several state reps, a portion of which was posted on Blue Mass Group political blog, to say the bill will cost caterers $40 million:
“These doctors are eating sandwiches in the kitchenettes of their office delivered from the corner restaurant, not surf and turf at Morton’s. Typical breakfasts and lunches cost $8 to $20 per person with taxes and delivery, not the $60-per-plate meals some must think these companies are buying for doctors in order to get them to see their products.
“The loss of $20,000 per year in food sales from each of over 2,000 pharmaceutical or medical device company sales representatives in Massachusetts alone will hammer the food service industry, resulting in lost jobs, closed restaurants, and lost sales taxes.”
How many jobs exactly? We called Abt and he says: “There could be potentially hundreds if not thousands of jobs lost in the Commonwealth at the restaurant level…Pass the bill and millions more will be spent advertising in media to reach those doctors. Meanwhile, they want to save the state taxpayer ‘x’ amount of dollars, but they’ll blow up thousands of jobs in the process.”
Hat tip to the Carlat Psychiatry Blog
Jane
I guess Mr. Abt believes doctors just won’t eat if pharma doesn’t pick up the tab.
HorusCat
Jane,
Most of them won’t. And their staff will bring food from home. The Law of Unintended Consequences works every time. When the government sticks its nose in something that it has no constitutional mandate to do, people suffer.
Ed,
You make sure to note that the doctors are “conflicted,” I suppose because they speak for pharma. You must also note that the state is conflicted, because it has economic interests in the issue, as well. Economic issues that may or may not coincide with what is in the patients’ best interests–much as you suggest with the physicians.
Ed Silverman
Hi HC,
That’s true - the state has various motives in play, depending upon who you talk to about this. Some state officials and reps see the debate over health care costs when they look at the bill and others see a potential loss in state revenue if businesses suffer or choose not to expand. And they would all say they’re looking out for the taxpayer - by either saving money or preserving revenue, depending upon which side of the fence they sit. But I don’t mean to quibble. It’s not necessarily black and white.
And I used the word ‘conflicted’ in connection with the two docs because this came up previously, as the link indicates. That’s not to suggest I was taking sides today. There are, indeed, two views of this debate and I thought folks would want to hear one man’s argument, especially since Abt raised a provocative point.
By the way, he tells me he brokers catering events - the standard sort of platters and the like for meetings - for about 100 restaurants and delis in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and takes charge of delivery. Which reminds me that it’s almost dinner time.
Regards
ed
HorusCat
Ed,
Thanks for your reply. I wish we had someone like that here. We have one group trying to do that sort of brokering, but it hasn’t really taken off. As it stands, my docs eat pretty much the same couple of things with me, because I won’t schlep food!
pharmainsider
Physicians have been utilizing and abusing the “free lunch” from the pharmaceutical industry as morale boosters for their staff for many years. In busy physician practices it is not uncommon to have free breakfast, lunch, afternoon cookies, and dinner all week long from a variety of willing large teir pharmaceutical companies. How do you justify this expense and intrinsic value to the patient population? Maybe we should see more television commercials and direct to consumer advertising.
harpy
Maybe it’ll help put a crimp in the obesity problem if office workers aren’t eating four free meals a day. just sayin’