Do doctors get a commission off the drugs that they prescribe?

[her209]

Any doctors in the house?

 

[dug777]

of course not.

 

[keeleysam]

Not financial, but they do get a lot of free sh!t to make them want to perscribe things.

 

[Slew Foot]

Most of the free crap is pretty useless. I have more pens, chip clips, clocks, scrub hats, etc... than I know what to do with. They had some new laws introduced a couple years back to limit the amount of gifts drug companies can give. I think the most expensive thing they can give out is a free dinner, and that has to be under $120/person I think.

 

[thelanx]

Some give out free ipods, and not the kind of "free ipods" we see here.

 

[SagaLore]

I was under the impression that the doctors had incentives, like vacations to hawaii and stuff.

 

[Kyle]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I was under the impression that the doctors had incentives, like vacations to hawaii and stuff.

nah- at least my dad never did- best he got were tickets to sports games where the drug rep would sit next to him.
no incentives for prescribing though

 

[DrPizza]

No. But, there was a story on NPR very recently about how the drug companies give away freebies and stuff to the doctors and whether it influences them. It's probably still available on archive format online... it was from within the last 3 weeks.

 

[Slew Foot]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I was under the impression that the doctors had incentives, like vacations to hawaii and stuff.

Most of our conferences are in nice vacation spots. We have to pay our own airfare, hotel,and stuff (usually tax deductable). There's usually a bunch of free dinners though.