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Doctors - Is this possible?
I feel like I need to rant about this. Maybe I'm wrong and I hope I am... so this has happened three times already and maybe it's just the weirdness in me, but I feel like doctors are purposely prescribing things that they get "spiffs" on. It reminds me of when you go to a department store and the ladies are asking you to try perfume. They don't ask you to try it because they like it or think it's the best, but they try to get you to buy it because they are paid to or receive something for making a sale.
I feel like I had three similar weird instances:
1. So I'm at the eye doctor and the doctor tries to get me to buy these new contact lenses. Not because they are better for me, but because he recommends them. They do the same thing for me my current ones do, they are just a different brand. I said no, I'm really used to the ones I have and like them and he gets angry!
2. Then I'm at the dermatologist, and they recommend this one product for dry skin... I pay a fortune for it because it doesn't come in a generic, then I go back a couple of weeks later because the product isn't working... I go to another doctor in the practice and he recommends the same product... then I see him holding a pad with the product logo on it. I thought it was kind of weird.
3. So then I take DH to the gastro doctor who says he should get a colonoscopy... my parents get them regularly and said the stuff you buy is fairly cheap, etc {and we have a great insurance company}, so the doctor writes the prescription for it and I question it because it's not what I thought the name of it was and he said, not this is it. Then I look and again, the logo for that product is on the pad and there's a poster on the wall and a pen. Needless to say this product {which would normally cost like $10 from the pharmacy ended up being close to $90 WITH insurance}.
Am I over thinking this? I feel like lately we've just been given things because maybe the doctor or the practice "gets" something out of it and not because it may be the right thing for us.
Re: Doctors - Is this possible?
I hate when I type a response and the Nest eats it! Here goes again...
Hubs says doctors are not allowed to take kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies, it's illegal. When they visit doctor's offices, they sometimes bring lunch for the whole office (not just the dr) though I doubt this sways the dr much to prescribe that specific drug. They are not allowed to take more than $50 in "gifts", meaning office supplies like the pens and pads of paper you're seeing. The days of fancy meals and luxury box seats are long gone.
H says the "gifts" of pens and such are on a decline, too. He saw several drug reps when he was doing rotations in Miami and none of them had any type of swag to offer.
Basically, the doctor doesn't have any benefit to him/herself for prescribing you anything specific.
And remember, if you don't like what you're prescribed you absolutely have the right as a patient to refuse to fill the prescription and ask for something different.
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my doctors are pretty good about being flexible with my Rx's...for example, my gyno always tells me to keep a list of side effects, and to let her know as soon as I'm unhappy with something so she can switch it.
Also, my other doctors (my PCP) gladly switched my prozac to xanax when I was having strange side effects, and both times I was perscribed the generic.
Have you asked your doctor is there is something comparable that does have a generic? If you did ask your doctor, and they didn't seem too helpful to switch to something else, I'd try to find another dr.
I can understand how the connection of the ineffective RX and the swag, though.