Editorial: Federal government cracks down on gifts

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002 | 8:58 a.m.

This week it was encouraging to see the federal government put drug makers on notice that freebies to health care providers no longer will be tolerated. As The New York Times reported Monday, the drug makers no longer will be able to offer financial incentives to doctors, pharmacists and other health care providers to convince them to prescribe or dispense their brand-name drugs. If the drug makers continue to offer the gifts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warned, the federal government may prosecute them for violating federal fraud and kickback laws.

The gifts that drug makers dole out to win the loyalty of doctors and pharmacists often are much more than key rings and pens. It's been reported that some doctors have received expensive meals and even weekend trips to beautiful locations. While wining and dining of clients has come to be expected in much of the business world, it's just plain wrong -- and now potentially criminal -- for doctors and pharmacists to engage in this conduct.

Their patients count on them to provide unbiased medical advice in setting up a proper course of treatment. We don't want to have to wonder whether that advice, including a prescription for a particular brand-name drug, was bought and paid for by a drug maker's salesman who offered him a nice skiing trip last weekend to Colorado.