Comments on: Prescription For Profit

Meet The Whistleblower Who Exposed A Hospital's Dangerous, And Costly, Pill Swapping

[barbaraf4]

Healthcare is a commodity. If you can afford it, you can have it.

So what else is new?? We have seen these predatory capitalism stories so many times.... I think we have just given up and gotten used to ''em.
When will we get the message that something is terribly, terrible wrong here.
Incidentally, I also watched the story about the three home lending CEO''s testifying in congress. It''s sickening to watch the republican congressmen cheerleader squad.

[xraytwonine]

supporters of the free market is blind from the "circulation"; ordinary persons who think they have any opinion at all about anything is often mislead. Honest and brave insiders willing to break the silence is our only hope.

This is the perfect example of how the rich gets incredible richer; nothing wrong with that, but if wealth is accumulated through trickery and deception than it must be discovered and extinguished.

Are you sure you really really really want capitalism? if not, then it''s time to leave, let others waste their time fighting to death for silly ideals.

[jane501]

Things like this are so frustrating! It doesn''t take a rocket scientist to figure out why things are out of control in many aspects and healthcare is one of the biggest ripoffs in the country. It all comes down to greed. If greed wasn''t a motivating factor our costs would be tolerable and taxpayers wouldn''t continue to be ripped off. We pay our taxes & trust those in power to "invest" and use the money wisely. All they do is find "legal" ways to circumvent the system and once again taxpayers take it in the shorts; Not to mention all of the lives that are constantly put in jeopardy. Once again in the name of greed. This country is in a pathetic mess! And WE elect these people because we think we can trust them. Wake up America!

What the news here, it is just business as usual for Big Pharma member Merck. Push as many pills as possible by any means for profit, side effects are not consider in their equation for profit.

[greeneyes222]

Just because the AMA condones this doesn''t make it right.

You can bet if Merck agreed to pay $650 million they made a lot more.

More than a few people ought to get jail time over this. Maybe then the hospitals and big pharma would take their responsibilities seriously.

[cathy612]

As a registered nurse of 20+ years. Drug "substitutions" in hospitals is an UNSAFE practice! Physicians, Pharmacists, and Hospital Administrators need to consider the bedside nurse and the volume of medications we administer every day. It is very confusing when drugs of the same class are substituted. Not only does the medication have a differnt name than the drug written on the order sheet but the dosing is different. This confuses even the most experienced nurse, think about what it must do to new graduates and student nurses! This is a huge patient safety issue and I applaud the actions of Dr. LaCorte

[taylpatr]

When someone or someTHING, say a drug company, convinces people with a T.V. commercial to "ask your doctor if so and so is right for you" and starts naming off a whole bunch of ambiguous symptoms that would apply to just about everybody, don''t you think that the term "pushing" should be applied? If that''s not drug pushing, then we need to re-write our dictionary. They''re all guilty of it, and I''m SO SICK OF HEARING ABOUT THE POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS! They all have these unemployed auctioneers rattling off more side effects then you can possibly understand. That is until your grandson, who''s been pounded by the *** thing AGAIN, asks you "grandpa, what''s blood in the stool?" I know I''ve had enough!

[grotsje]

This story fails to acknowledge that when implemented appropriately therapeutic interchange is an accepted practice within hospitals that helps hospitals manage rising drug expenditures. The practice is supported by AMA and other professional organizations. Here is an excerpt from AMA policy:
"3) That drug formulary systems, including the practice of therapeutic interchange, are acceptable in inpatient hospital and other institutional settings that have an organized medical staff and a functioning Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee, provided they satisfy the following standards..." http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/13675.html) Obviously, therapeutic interchange wasn''t implemented correctly in this case. However, health care and drug expenditures are increase, and lets please not immediately dismiss accepted practices to manage health care expenditures in hospitals!!!

[lloydbest1]

Here''s an idea....
Take the market COMPLETELY out of health care. Yes, make it entirely not-for-profit and use healing efficacy as a standard for subsidising those who participate in the industry.
Oversimplified, I know but it''s a start.

[ssm9451]

The world is insane!!

[tomanyt]

Is any one really surprised by this story?

[cyberus-2009]

Whistleblowers RULE!

[serack96]

I always suspected someone in military procurement got a kickback for all the 800mg tablets of Motrin I was prescribed while in the Army. Reading this I think I might have been right to wonder.