Dollars for Doc

Well, my oral surgeon got $318 from them in 2018. Still gonna keep him.

This is great info for people who write reviews of docs on sites such as healthgrades.com. Also a good thing to check when choosing a new doctor. I see my cardiologist got $1,220- pretty minimal given his medication-intensive specialty.
 
Just for kicks, I clicked on the "Highest Earnings" Docs.

The really big dollars (millions) fall into 2 categories:

- Ownership interest
- Royalty or License

Ironically, the lead-in paragraph says it excludes Research and Ownership interest.

Pharmaceutical and medical device companies are required by law to release details of their payments to a variety of doctors and U.S. teaching hospitals for promotional talks, research and consulting, among other categories. Use this tool to search for general payments (excluding research and ownership interests) made from August 2013 to December 2018.
Click to expand...

Even the high flyers had nominal payments in the other categories (meals, conferences, etc.).
 
Interesting, though since most Dermas also do aesthetic stuff, I'm not sure if that number is high or low. Would be good to compare among the type of medicine practiced to know if one was high. Still, over $400k is probably high by any measure!

My PCP and my Ortho both had just a few hundred bucks so I'm glad I looked.

ETA: I checked my Derma and cosmetics are a big part of his practice... $165.00!
 
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That's a lot of money! For fun I looked up my dermatologist, $346. Although my dermatologist office has a bunch of ads and sells some high cost non prescription stuff.
Judt thought, I should see if the whole practice is listed. Not individual doctors.
 
When I looked up my dermatologist he got $300. Not exactly scandal material.
 
My brother is a family doc. Looked him up. Only like $1700. Feel like I’m spying on him. Guess I am [emoji4]
 
This explains the catered sandwiches and fruit salads I saw being carried into my oncologist's office. She received over $1K in food and beverage from drug companies.
 
Boose said:
This explains the catered sandwiches and fruit salads I saw being carried into my oncologist's office. She received over $1K in food and beverage from drug companies.
Click to expand...


I'd give any oncologist the shirt off my back... I'm in awe of someone that helps every patient through the worst time of their lives. I can't imagine the emotional stress that comes with this life. I'm sure oncologists feels it's a calling and not a job.
 
Mod note:
A couple of posts were removed because they identified specific doctors by name. Please don't do that.
 
MuirWannabe said:
My brother is a family doc. Looked him up. Only like $1700. Feel like I’m spying on him. Guess I am [emoji4]
Click to expand...

Guilty as charged. I looked up my brother and SIL; he got about $1,200, she was $0. I hope she straightens him out :).
 
My GP got over $3K. Almost all Food & Beverage. Good. That means he's keeping costs down at his practice, and he's going to conferences, seminars or wherever they're feeding him. Hopefully, keeping up on new developments. As a GP he needs pretty broad knowledge. Must be hard to keep up and still run a practice.

jollystomper said:
Guilty as charged. I looked up my brother and SIL; he got about $1,200, she was $0. I hope she straightens him out :).
Click to expand...

I'd say he needs to straighten her out!
 
Great link. I checked a bunch of physicians I know and was pleased to see the dollar amounts were de minimus, impressive because they are all late career and established. Specialties are varied in my physician friends group- PCP, cardio, ortho, plastic surgery, thoracic surgery.

Several hundred thousand dollars is a red flag.
 
The Covid has changed medical sales forever. My doctors now only practice telemedicine, and they only see patients when absolutely necessary.

No more medical salespersons hauling in big trays of food at 11:30 a.m. like clockwork.

I wonder what the salespersons are going to do in the future? Sell something legitimately?
 
My sister is an OB/Gyno and got nothing- I think she was a hospitalist in 2018.

It would be interesting to know the form of some of this remuneration. Years ago the vendors (pharma, medical equipment manufacturers) would organize continuing education events aboard, say, a cruise ship or at a resort. That could add up. Not necessarily bad unless all the "education" is slanted towards more use of the vendor's products or the education time is a minimal part of the schedule.
 
Bamaman said:
The Covid has changed medical sales forever. My doctors now only practice telemedicine, and they only see patients when absolutely necessary.

No more medical salespersons hauling in big trays of food at 11:30 a.m. like clockwork.

I wonder what the salespersons are going to do in the future? Sell something legitimately?
Click to expand...

@Bamaman respectfully, this is not reality. Large quantities of food are brought in daily by drug reps to medical facilities across the country. So much food in fact that it exceeds any reasonable food quantity estimate for the number of healthcare staff in said facilities. This leads to said staff taking home large quantities of food every evening to their homes and families. And it happens every day in each of the said facilities.

I have first hand experience observing this. It’s gross.
 
I'm not too worried about "detail" guys and girls bringing in food for "the troops." To some extent we just need to trust our professionals to be objective about new drugs, etc. Between DW and I, we have a lot of Docs and some do appear to eat free quite a few times/year. But, looking at the meds we are on, I see no pushing of the "latest greatest" when the old (generics) will do just fine.

Years ago, I did have a doc who was pushing the newest GERD pill on me - you'd know the name if I said it (the pill, not the doc.) The old one was working fine and the new one would have "tweaked" my insurance company (enough they wouldn't cover all the cost as they did with generics.) So I staid on the stand by and the doc never groused about it. YMMV
 
Great site retire-early. Thanks for posting.

Naturally I looked up our long time GP. At first I was a bit concerned that he showed about $3.9k. Then I went to the detail page and saw that it was made up of dozens of drugs left in small quantities over many instances. $10 worth of X, $20 worth of Y, that sort of thing. I had at first jumped to the conclusion someone spent $3.9k wining and dining him....... Ooooops! (He really doesn't seem like the wine and dine type, but ya never know.)

One of the drugs listed, an expensive blood thinner, he gave to me as a sample when I was first diagnosed with AFIB. Now I'm an accessory to the crime??
 
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I recall this episode of Big Bang Theory very well.......

The Big Bang Theory Season 08 Episode 07

Amy: I just don’t think a professional woman should have to flaunt her sexuality in order to get ahead.
Penny: Okay, what’s the big deal? Look, if it helps me make a sale with a physician, I don’t think it hurts to flirt a little. I mean, laugh at their joke, touch their arm, maybe crank up the AC in the car beforehand, you know, to wake up the girls.
 
my doc only got food and beverage $, which is explained as sales rep taking him to lunch or dinner. ok by me
 
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