You’re absolutely correct. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s, in the early part of my career we were regularly courted by “drug reps”. I had my textbooks purchased by them in my first year of grad school, was taken to a private dinner in a wine cellar with 7 of my buddies where we dropped THOUSANDS of dollars, and a night on the town during a conference I attended - again to the tune of thousands. All to persuade us to choose specific drugs for use in anesthesia. I was in my early 20s and totally caught off guard by this. I was dating an internal medicine resident at the time who drank a $400 glass of scotch provided to him during a “drug rep dinner”, which he attended literally a minimum of 3 nights a week.
What went on was ridiculous. Then when people started to crack down, Big Pharma just had their lobbyists ensure they were legislatively protected. Obamacare tied reimbursement for doctors into the use of certain medications, specifically vaccines. Why do you think hospitals started mandating their staff be vaccinated against the flu under penalty of termination? It’s not because they’re so altruistic. It’s because the Affordable Care Act directly tied hospital reimbursement rates into the level of staff compliance with flu vaccine.
I hardly recognize the health care industry anymore. It’s sure changed since my first clinical rotation as an undergraduate nursing student in 1995.
You can say that again! They've reduced an often selfless art and sacred profession to the equivalent of a unionized 9-to-5 job.