A New Scheme To Push Opiods For Profit

An Electronic Health Records Company Makes Secret Deal With Opiod Manufacturer To Push Doctors To Prescribe More Opiods.

At this point, we know opiods can be a real problem for people. They have caused a significant amount of death and so much suffering in people who just wanted to get out of pain.

Pharmaceutical companies have used various tactics to increase the distribution of their opiate medications in order to make more profit.

A recent Bloomberg article talks about a tactic that hadn’t ever gotten any previous press.

According to the article the Electronic Health Records provider, Practice Fusion, cut a deal with an undisclosed opiod manufacturer to suggest opiods as a treatment for patients in pain using a popup. Of course a simple click makes it easier to consider using an opiate, regardless of potential serious risks.

This deal was revealed after a government investigation. Practice Fusion has agreed to pay $145 million to resolve civil and criminal cases, according to court documents filed.

According to the article, “Employees estimated internally that the drug company could add almost 3,000 patients and bolster opioid sales by as much as $11.3 million through the partnership. Under the contract, the drug maker paid Practice Fusion almost $1 million.”

Cases like this and others like… the Johnson and Johnson vs Oklahoma case or the case of bribing doctors to prescribe opiates continue to come up although admittedly this is a new marketing avenue. I guess it might not be new, other companies could have been doing the same thing. Who knows.

This type of behavior from large companies (or any individual/company) is terrible. It represents a real issue that strongly calls into question the ethics of a company. In the case of opiods, human lives are definitely at stake.

Pain and Chronic Pain are serious problems that effect so many Americans.

Most pain sufferers are suffering as a result of a musculoskeletal problem. The vast majority of these problems respond remarkably well to conservative care including at the forefront, Chiropractic care.

Chiropractic care can often eliminate the need for pain medications and in other cases, dramatically reduce the amount of medications necessary.

Reference:
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-01-29/health-records-company-pushed-opioids-to-doctors-in-secret-deal